You don't know Jo
by Pchefbeth
Summary: Jo receives a mysterious package in the mail- and its presence alters her, literally.  Unable to explain what's happened to her through science, Fargo turns to a friend of his at Warehouse 13 for some answers. A episode-like story, All characters
1. Chapter 1

_Jo receives a mysterious package in the mail- and its presence alters her, literally. Unable to explain what's happened to her through science, Fargo turns to a friend of his at Warehouse 13 for some answers. A Jo/Zane romance in progress._

_Eureka and Warehouse 13 Cross-Over Fanfic. Takes place about a week after episode 4.09- I'll be seeing you. Rated T for later violence. I own none of the characters in Eureka or Warehouse 13, but I would like Jo Lupo to be my friend._

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**You don't know Jo**

_Chapter 1_

Vincent had outdone himself this morning, Jo thought to herself as she sipped her morning vinspresso. After her normal morning run she'd been able to stop by café diem and grab a muffin with Sheriff Carter before she headed to work. It was a routine that they had started ever when they had switched timelines- meeting for breakfast before the workday. Now that they no longer worked together, they found time to get together a few times a week to catch up and she'd come to enjoy it. That and Vincent's blueberry muffins.

She had finally moved back into her own place just three days before, and it was taking some adjusting to being on her own again. Between the noisiness of Carter's home, S.A.R.A.H and now Zoe home for the summer months, the house had seemed so crowded until she was back in her own place. Suddenly she found that she couldn't get used to all of the quiet, even if she did like having her own space. '_It was just going to take some adjusting'_, she thought, '_its not as if we haven't been doing enough of that in the past few months'_. She was never fully going to adjust to this timeline. The demands of the job provided new challenges in her life, but the solitude was something that she wasn't sure that she could cope with. It had taken so long for her to find someone who she could trust to lean on, and now that she didn't have him anymore she was finding the world a very lonely place.

_Zane_. She'd been avoiding this-Zane all week, ever since that disastrous moment last week in the sheriff's office. It was her fault, she knew it. The hallucinations weren't something that she could control, but they had wreaked havoc with her life, so much so that now he knew her secret, and to prove a point he had kissed her.

Jo got on the elevator and pushed the sixth floor button to head to her office and closed her eyes as the elevator began moving to her floor. For just a moment last week she'd forgotten and had kissed him back. It had felt so much like her Zane and she had been so caught off guard by what he had done that it had taken her a moment to stop. Zane had given her the funniest look and before he could say too much more they were interrupted by Zoe. Jo still didn't know how she felt about the interruption. There were no more answers that she could have given him and lord knew he would have continued to push for them if Zoe hadn't come in, but Jo hadn't been in any form to fight back after that kiss. It had rattled her deeply and she still didn't know what she was going to do about it. She had contemplated leaving Eureka for a day or two, thinking that the problem might go away with her if she left. Zane really didn't have any proof about the others, but he had plenty of it when it came to her. But she discarded that idea finally yesterday and had spent most of the evening in her gym coming up with a new plan. The time for avoiding Zane was past. She needed to seek him out and get the ball back in her court. He wasn't the sort who was going to go and rattle the information off to anyone attention unless it suited him, so she was just going to have to make sure that it didn't benefit him to do so. She hated to think of it as giving into blackmail, but perhaps they could find a way to be reasonable.

Jo finally got to her office door and as she pressed her thumb print to open it her second in command former Army Major Chris Hale came walking up to her.

"Morning ma'am," he said briskly handing her the morning's stack of memo's, and the mail.

"Hale," Jo greeted him. "Any incidents last night that I need to be aware of?"

Hale ran through the checklist from the night before, and Jo half listened while she walked to her desk, and turned on her computer and equipment while Hale explained about the small fluctuations they found in Section 2 and the scientist who had accidentally locked himself in his lab and needed to be rescued. Jo knew that if there'd been anything truly serious she would have been called in.

Jo nodded as he finished his verbal report. "Make sure to have the incident reports on my desk before the end of the day, and please check over the new rotation schedule that I sent you. I want to take a closer look at the shifts that we have had ongoing for the past few months."

Hale agreed but not before Jo caught a slight grimace, just slight enough to indicate displeasure, but not enough to call him on it.

Jo dismissed him and he left her office. She continued sipping her coffee and wondered if she needed to have a talk with Hale about his attitude. According to the reports that she had, he had earned the job as second in command shortly before she herself was appointed to the head of GD. He'd been passed over for the promotion and Jo had been given the job instead. Having been in his shoes before when Carter came in she was trying to be understanding, but she needed to believe that she could trust that he wouldn't undermine her. Deciding to give him a few more days before she spoke with him, she turned her attention to the morning schedule.

Her day was going to be busy. She had a meeting with the Head of Section 5 to discuss some upcoming shifts in lab assignments, and she had two meetings to discuss security protocols with lab directors in Section 2 whose teams kept violating safety procedures with their experiments. She still needed to make time to speak with Zane and decided to make that her top priority that morning after she dealt with the mail.

She rifled through the letters that had come in- requisition catalogs for equipment, hard copies of incident reports, and then she came to a small brown parcel at the bottom. There was no return stamp on the outside, which meant that it was a hand delivered item. Not unusual given that packages often came from the DOD in couriered bundles and were given out on site by hand. She took the top off the box and shook out the contents into her hand.

Zane heard the quiet beeping of the alarm on his computer monitor go off, and he blinked his eyes blearily as he read the message. _J. Lupo-__Online_. His mind suddenly alert, he quickly erased the message and looked around the lab to make sure that no one had noticed. It was still early and there were only a small handful of people in the room, and none were paying him any attention. He'd already been in the office for the past two hours pretending to work while he waited for Jo to arrive so that he could find a way to speak with her, It had been more than a week now since they'd last spoke and she was still avoiding him; she'd gotten really sneaky about it too. When he'd tried to stop her in the gym she had slipped out the back door. When he tried to intercept her on her morning run she'd lost him down a side street. He'd almost caught her on the rotunda two days ago, but she'd managed to slip into an elevator before he could reach her.

So he'd been forced to turn to less legitimate ways of finding out where she would be. He'd hacked into the mainframe and placed a tracer on her computer so that he would be notified when she logged into her computer. He'd also made a point of checking out her schedule and saw that he'd have about an hour before she had her first meeting. '_That would have to wait_,' he thought, '_because they had a lot of talking to do_.'

He yawned widely and ran his hands over his face as he tried to focus. He was exhausted. He hadn't slept much since their conversation the week before. He snorted to himself, '_yeah ri_ght', it was the memory of the conversation that kept him awake at night. He walked over to the coffee pot and poured the remains of what sadly wasn't anything close to vinsperesso into his mug. He sipped and grimaced at the bitter taste as he willed the caffeine to keep him going for just a little longer. He needed to have his wits about him when he spoke to Lupo this morning, and lately they had been failing him. It wasn't just the conversation that was causing him to lose sleep, although finding out that the 'enforcer' secretly had feelings for him was trippy enough, but the discovery of the ring that she had thrown at him proved that there was an alternate universe, or timeline depending on how you looked at it, and that Jo wasn't from this one. She wasn't alone either by his count. He'd been seeing too many weird things going on with several of Eureka's more prominent scientists, and the sheriff, but they weren't his biggest concern right now. Jo was. If he was correct, and he was sure that he was, Jo Lupo was from a timeline where she was in love with him, and given the fact that she had his grandmother's ring, he had loved her enough to propose. Dealing with the understanding of that alone was a heady subject, but the real reason that he was loosing sleep was because of that kiss.

He'd come to some pretty big conclusions as he'd sat there in that jail cell all day, and the majority of his thoughts had been about her. He'd made a point just last week of going down to the Eureka bank and checking his security deposit box; his grandmother's ring had still been inside. He'd originally planned to leave the other one inside, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Its mere existence was too big of a clue. So instead he found himself carrying it around in his pocket. He suspected that if he analyzed it he would have found it to be identical down to the molecular level. But doing that would raise too many questions when he himself still had so many that needed to be answered. He needed to talk to Jo so that they could figure out what they were going to do.

He got on the elevator and pressed the sixth floor button. He pinched the bridge of his nose as the elevator began to move as he focused on what he was going to say. '_Yeah_,' he thought to himself, _'say to Lupo, not do'_. He'd had several sleepless nights thinking about that kiss. And when he was able to sleep he'd been plagued by very erotic dreams featuring GD's Head of Security. He still wasn't entirely sure why he had kissed her. At first it had been to prove a point. He wanted her to know that he was lying and that he knew I;, but If he was honest with himself, which he admitted he rarely was, he had been wanting to kiss her for a very long time, and faced with the opportunity he couldn't help himself. He was never good with having unsolved mysteries right in front of him, and that kiss had become the largest piece of a puzzle that had been plaguing him ever since he came to Eureka.

He had been infatuated with then-deputy Lupo ever since he arrived. He just got such a kick out of riling that usually calm demeanor, that and she was hot. He'd flirted with her for weeks before finally asking her out. She didn't say no, but she never said yes either which made him continue to ask. The day he heard about her new job at GD he was one of the first to congratulate her and he surprised her by asking her out to brunch. To his surprise she finally agreed to go out with him.

The date had begun well enough, but somewhere during brunch her face lost its usual animation and she turned down his offer of staying for coffee. As she left he realized that she'd forgotten the rose that he'd brought her, and he moved to follow her outside. As he opened the door he spotted General Mansfield lecturing her just on the sidewalk outside. He'd only caught a few words before he realized that the General was expressing his disapproval of her associating with known felons when she was about to take such a pivotal role at GD. Zane listened to his stern warning to her about how everything that she did from then on was going to be under scrutiny and that she needed to check her priorities. Jo never saw that he heard what the General had said, and he never asked her out again. After that day they barely spoke, and whenever she did speak to him it was with cool professionalism. He had grown bored with Eureka after that. He was always going to be viewed as the screw-up, the felon, and no matter what he did it was never going to change anyone's mind. His boredom at work grew into harmless pranks- screw them if they can't take a joke, and he quickly found himself booted from one boring project to another. Another boring day in Eureka, but anywhere was better than prison, or so he tried to tell himself. He was bored out of his flipping mind, or at least he had been until he'd been sitting in the sheriff's jail cell and Jo Lupo had walked in and said that she would marry him.

At first he'd thought that she'd been playing some sort of prank on him. She'd looked so confused he wondered if she'd been the victim of another experiment go wrong- it certainly happened frequently enough around there. He'd brushed it off, he remembered, and proceeded to do what he normally did when he saw her which was needle her as much as he could. Over the next few weeks as he began noticing changes, he started to wonder if he'd been the one who was going nuts. Ever since she had taken the job at GD she only ever called him Donovan. It pissed him off that she wouldn't use his name and she knew it, which was why she did it. It was why he admitted he called her Lupo instead of Jo. But lately it was like she had forgotten and she had been calling him by his name. The first time she'd done it, it had taken him a little while to realize it. She'd come down the NLWP's lab where he'd been working on immobilization mines. She looked so uncomfortable that he couldn't help but needle her like always, but she hadn't responded to his digs. Fargo had looked so smug that he couldn't resist trying to bean him with the bean bag rifle, but Lupo had caught it inches from his face without any effort. He didn't realize it until a few minutes later that she had called him 'Zane' instead of 'Donovan'. Less than an hour later the whole day got very fuzzy and he had trouble remembering all of it. He was pretty sure that Lupo had been there, but he wasn't really clear on it. It was only the first of many things about her behavior that weren't adding up.

The elevator doors opened and he walked down the hall towards Jo's office. He'd certainly been called in there more than a few times. He stood outside the door, hands buried in his pockets as he tried to stay calm and focused on getting answers. Who was he kidding, he chided himself- he was neither calm nor focused and he went with plan B- and charged right in.

He knocked as he entered, but found it unnecessary as her office was empty. He swore under his breath, he must have just missed her-again. He walked over to look at her desk. Her computer was still on, and piles of unfiled reports and mail covered the normally neat-as-a-pin desk. It looked like she had just up and walked away in the middle of opening the morning mail. On the top of the pile there was an empty small brown box. He had just decided that he would grab a seat and wait for her when he heard the noise- a quiet, snuffling sound. It reminded him of an animal and he looked behind the chairs to see if one of the lab animals had escaped again. He frowned as he looked. If there was indeed such an escape then he was sure to be the first in line to be questioned. If it weren't for the fact that he was sure that she'd sic her second in command on him he would have already done it in order to talk to her.

The noise was soft but steady and the only place left in the room was under the desk, so he bent his knees and looked beneath the large wide desk. Instead of an animal he found himself looking at a little girl. She was wearing a pink ballerina costume, and matching ballet shoes. Her hair was done up in curly pigtails and there was a purple ribbon tied to one of them. Tears streamed silently out of her large brown eyes and down her face as she sniffled.

Zane's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Hey," he said softly not wanting to scare her. "What are you doing under here?"

"Daddy is going to be so mad at me," she said quietly with a little hiccup, as she knelt beneath the desk. "I just wanted to wear it for a little while," she said pleadingly. "I know I'm not supposed to."

It wasn't very often that Zane found himself in the company of children, and he sat down on the floor trying to figure out what to do. He decided finally that his problem with Jo could wait a minute and he picked up his phone to call her. When it went to voicemail he was annoyed that she was still ignoring him. "Come on Jo", he bit out angrily as her voice said to leave a message. "Lupo, we need to talk. I'm in your office and there's a kid in here."

The child in question peered out at him and asked in a quiet voice. "Are you mad at me?"

Zane tried to make his voice sound calmer, he didn't want to scare her. "No, I'm not," he assured her." Why don't you tell me who your dad is and we'll call him and tell him where you are." He offered.

If possible, her eyes grew wider, "My dad is the Colonel," she said quietly.

'_Great_' Zane thought, '_its probably one of_ _Mansfield's guys_.' "Colonel who," he asked her as patiently as he could. "What's your name?"

The little girl rubbed her runny nose on the back of her hand while a small silver charm bracelet dangled from her wrist. "I'm Josefina Lupo," she said, "but my mommy calls me Jo."

Zane froze and stared at the little girl. He marked the dark curcly hair, and the light olive complextion of her skin, and shook his head in disbelief.

She blinked owlishly at him, and gave him a small smile; she was missing a front tooth. "What's your name?" she asked.

Zane merely sat there trying to figure out what the hell was going on. "Shit", he said, swearing under his breath, but the little girl heard him and frowned.

"That's a bad word," she told him. "My mommy says that you're not supposed to say words like that."

Zane swore again and picked up his phone and dialed, his eyes never leaving the little girl. "Dr, Blake," he said into the phone. "It's Zane. Can you come to Lupo's office right away? I think we have a problem."

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_I hope that you enjoyed my version of why Jo and Zane had never gotten together in this timeline. I like blaming things on Mansfield. For inquiring minds- Zoe is still around, like any guy Zane hasn't said anything to her yet, but our girl Zoe isn't stupid. You'll see her in later chapters. More from our Warehouse 13 gang also in later chapters. I hope you enjoy- I'm just getting warmed up. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I own nothing about Eureka, its town or its people….but please just tell me that it's really out there somewhere…please?_

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Chapter 2

Dr. Allison Blake stared at the results on the computer screen, and ran the program again. It just wasn't possible. The computer flashed the answer on the screen again- for the fourth time, which assured her that it was. Letting out a sigh, she turned to look at the little girl sitting on the hospital bed talking to Zane. According to all of the tests that she had run the girl was Jo Lupo, but she couldn't begin to fathom how it had occurred.

Zane looked up from his seat beside the bed and caught her eye. He looked at her expectantly and asked, "Well?" but before Allison could answer the door opened and Sheriff Jack Carter walked in to the infirmary quickly followed by Douglas Fargo, Henry Deacon and his wife Grace Monroe.

Carter made a swift bee-line in her direction. "Allison, what's happened- where's Jo," he asked her, worry evident in his voice.

Allison motioned for the four of them to be quiet and follow her to a spot a little farther away. "I don't know how it's possible," she began quietly, "but that little girl," she said as she gestured to the little ballerina, "- is Jo Lupo."

Carter put his hands on his hips and looked over at the bed. Little Jo was sitting on the side of the bed swinging her legs, talking quietly with Zane, and from the looks of things she was peppering him with questions about the computer he held in his hand.

"Allison," Grace started, "how is something like this even…." she trailed off as words failed her.

Carter looked at each of them in turn and asked in a very low voice so as not to be overheard, "Could this have something to do with the…" and he gestured to each one of them with his hands.

Allison shook her head no. "No, _our_ situation," she said softly so as not to be overheard by Zane, couldn't be causing this. We're talking about changes to her body at a molecular level," she said sounding very worried as she turned to look at little Jo.

"Could another 'incident' have brought her here, or could she be a clone?" Carter questioned.

"No," Henry confirmed, "in order to be able to clone someone, it would take years to develop to this level, you can't just clone someone to begin life at a certain age, and as for the other _possibility_, there would have had to have been a bridge device in Jo's world prior to Eureka for that to even be probable, much less solar flares and technology that even we-," he gestured around the room, "Don't have access to."

"Is she aware of what's happening to her," Grace asked.

Allison sighed. "I don't know, but I don't think so. She took one look at me and just about freaked out. She kept trying to run out of the lab, and it took Zane a while to get her to calm down and even come in and sit down."

Carter's face was solemn, "That defiantly doesn't sound like our Jo," he said with a worried look at the little girl.

Zane had been watching from the hospital bedside and after seeing their worried looks, he got out of his chair and walked over to join them, leaving Jo to leaf through a magazine looking at the pictures. As he approached Carter immediately asked him in an intense whisper. "How did this happen?"

"Look," Zane said annoyed, "all I know is that I went to Jo's office to talk to her and I found the kid under her desk."

"Well according to the computer," said Allison, "not only is that little girl Jo Lupo, but she's the only Jo Lupo in the entire building. The DNA scan confirmed it."

Carter opened his mouth to ask more questions, but before he could a little shriek of delight was heard throughout the room.

"Jonathan!"

They all turned to look back at the infirmary bed, to see that little Jo had spotted them. She stood up on the hospital bed and held out her hands towards Carter, her eyes alight with happiness.

Carter moved over to the bed, and was followed by the others as he approached her. "Hi," he said, talking softly so as not to scare her, "My name is Sheriff Jack Car-" but as he approached her she leapt into his arms.

"Jonathan, Jonathan!" she said again as her tiny arms clung to his neck in a bear hug.

Allison looked on bemused." At least she'll talk to you. I couldn't get a word out of her."

Little Jo hugged Carter's neck and whispered to him loudly. "I don't like doctors. She wants to stick me with a needle," she added in a worried tone.

Carter tried to smile, but he couldn't quite manage it. "No needles," he promised her, "at least not right now", he clarified looking at Allison, and moving with Jo still in his arm, he sat down on the hospital bed. "So…Jo," he said hesitantly, "do you know who I am?"

She grinned, and her missing front tooth gave her a cute snaggled-tooth smile. "Of course silly," she told him rolling her eyes, "you're my brother Jonathan."

"Uh-huh," Carter said slowly. "And how about her," he asked pointing to Allison.

"That's the doctor lady," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, "but I'm not sick."

"Ok, and how about these guys," he said pointing to Henry, Fargo, and Grace.

Jo giggled at the game, "That's Jeffrey and Jason," she told him, then in another loud whisper, "Jeffrey has a girlfriend," she said pointing to Grace, "but he doesn't like it when we tease him about it, and Jason is a dork!," she said with a laugh as she pointed at Fargo.

Fargo was taken aback and quickly responded, "I am not!"

"Are too," Jo quickly replied back.

"Am not!" Fargo said more emphatically.

Jo stuck her tongue out at him, and Fargo stuck his tongue back out at her.

"I'm tell-ing", she sing-songed.

"Fargo!" Carter chastised.

"So she believes that we're her brothers?" Henry asked aloud.

Carter shook his head as he brushed a stray curl back from Jo's face. "I don't know. I've never heard her speak about them before, have any of you?"

One by one the others shook their heads.

"Sweetheart," Allison began, "How old are you?"

Jo giggled and held up her right hand palm out. Understanding dawning Allison nodded. "You're five?" she asked for confirmation.

"Jo," Carter began," Do you remember how you got here?" he asked her pointing to the room.

Jo smiled and nodded, "Sure I do. He brought me here," she said as she pointed to Zane.

Carter looked at Zane in confusion, and then turned back to Jo. "You know Zane," he clarified?

"Sure I do," she chirped, and then grinned mischievously. "His name begins with the letter Z. He showed me how to spell it. He found me under the desk, and brought me to see the doctor lady." She grinned impishly, and whispered loudly to Carter, "He says bad words, lots of times."

Zane saw the others look at him, and to his embarrassment, he felt himself blush. "Now who's telling on who." he muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"He has a computer," Jo said as she pointed to the notepad that Zane carried in his hands, "and he let me push the buttons." She told Carter proudly.

"and you don't remember how you got into the room where he found you," Carter questioned.

Almost at once little Jo's face fell and her eyes began to water. "I was in my room, putting on my tutu. I know that I'm not supposed to wear it, but I wanted to practice my dancing to show mommy. Daddy said I had to miss my recital 'cause mommy was with the doctors, but I wanted to show mommy how good I was getting, so I put it on. Jason came in to my room," she said as she pointed to Fargo, "and said that mommy couldn't see me dancing anymore, cause she was in heaven." The tears that had been threatening, spilled over and ran down her cheeks, and she started to cry in earnest. "You told me that she'll always be able to see me, but I want to see her too. Couldn't you take me to heaven to that I could see mommy?" She pleaded with Carter. "I promise that I'll be good."

Carter held her and let her cry, her head buried against his shoulder. Allison moved to stand beside them, and gently rubbed little Jo on the back attempting to soothe her.

Grace finally broke the silence. "Did Jo's mother recently pass away?"

Zane moved over to the closest computer monitor and began to searching for information, while Carter tried to get little Jo to stop crying.

"It's ok," he crooned, as he rocked her back and forth. Slowly the sobs were reduced to little hiccups, and Allison handed Carter some Kleenex to dry her eyes, and wipe her nose. Eventually Jo grew quiet and laid her head against Carter's shoulder.

Allison met Carter's eyes and smiled at him. "Feel familiar?"

Carter gave her a brief smile. "I haven't done this for Zoe," he said softly "in….well, too many years."

Zane cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "I.. um... I found something," and he gestured to the screen. Henry, Grace, and Fargo moved over towards the computer to read what he had found. Henry read for a moment and then looked over at Carter and nodded his head.

"Jennifer Lupo," Grace read aloud so that Carter and Allison could hear, "Died April 1, 1984 due to complications from Breast Cancer at the age of 42. She is survived by her husband Colonel Jerome Lupo, and their four children- Jonathan- age 15, Jeffrey- age 11, Jason- age 8, and Josefina -age 5."

"Ah, Jo," Carter said quietly as he looked down at the dark haired girl in his arms.

Henry walked closer to Allison and Carter, hand on his chin as he considered the possible explanations. "So, she's actually reliving this memory from her childhood," he said "But there's just no scientific explanation that I can think of to explain this."

Suddenly Fargo made a strangled noise, forcing the others to look over at him. "Oh crap," he said horror dawning on his face as he reached into his pocket, pulled out his PDA and dialed a number. "I think I know what this is." He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for an answer. "Come on Claudia…pick up!" he muttered while he began to pace back and forth. When Allison started to question him, he held up a finger for her to wait.

Finally the call was picked up. "Fargonator!" A voice intoned on the line, "Dude, what's up? Ready for a rematch in HALO 3 so that I can prove my awesomeness once more?"

"Claudia," Fargo interrupted, "We've got a problem- I think there's an artifact in Eureka."

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_A shorter chapter to get the ball rolling, but hopefully an enjoyable one. I'm hoping to have Chapter 3 up on October 31st which is Erica Cerra's Birthday._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Carter walked into Café Diem, a small little hand tucked into his, and made his way towards the counter. Vincent, looked up from reciting his daily special to a couple at a nearby table, and gave the sheriff a wave, which was followed by a curious glance towards the new arrival who was currently swinging her arm and Carter's back and forth.

After Fargo's quick phone call to Claudia at Warehouse 13, he had instructed them to keep everything quiet and to let as few people know about the incident as possible. Since the presence of an unknown little girl would be noticed, not to mention the absence of the head of Security, Carter had agreed to tell people that she was the child of a visiting scientist and that Fargo had asked him to keep an eye on her during the day. Meanwhile Fargo had left the lab to tell Jo's deputy that she had gone home for the day sick, and muttering about preparations that needed to be made for the team's arrival in Eureka.

Henry and Grace had suggested that they take Jo somewhere quiet for a while, and after Jo complained that she was hungry, Carter decided to take her over to Café Diem.

"Are we going to eat now?" Jo asked as she looked around the room.

"Yes," Carter said absently as he started walking towards his usual spot at the counter.

She wrinkled her nose, and asked, "I don't have to eat baloney, do I?"

"No," Carter said with a grin, "Vincent can make whatever you'd like."

"Can we have cookies?" Jo asked as she climbed up on the stool beside Carter.

"Ye- maybe after lunch," he quickly corrected. Seeing Vincent heading over towards them, Carter leaned down and whispered for Jo to hear. "Remember, we're playing a game," he told her. "I'm the sheriff, ok?

"Can I be a sheriff too?" She asked.

A small smile quirked up in the corner of Carter's mouth. "How about you be my deputy," he told her.

She frowned at him. "Why can't I be the sheriff too?"

"Let's just pretend," he told her as Vincent came over to speak to them.

"Hello Sheriff, who do we have here?"

"I'm Jo!" Little Jo chirped at Vincent. "I'm the deputy," she told him proudly.

Vincent's eyebrows rose in question and he looked over to Carter for an explanation.

Carter gave what he hoped was a disarming smile at Vincent. "She's a kid of one of those visiting scientists. Fargo-" he said as he waved a hand, "asked me to babysit her, so we're playing a little game."

"Jo, huh," Vincent said as he turned back at little Jo. "I have a friend named Jo too…Jo Lu-"

"So Vincent," Carter interrupted as he cleared his throat loudly. "What are your specials today?"

"Don't toy with me Sheriff….every day I slave and I create, and every day it's the same thing."

"Well, I keep hoping to hear one day that the burger _is_ the special."

"Man cannot live by cheeseburger alone," Vincent quipped then pointedly ignored Carter and turned to Jo. "So what can I make you?"

"I don't like baloney," Jo said her face screwed up in a grimace.

"A wise and discerning palette," Vincent said with a smile. "I personally don't know why anybody would. I can make you anything that you want." He gestured for her to tell him, "What's your favorite food."

"Can you really make anything?" She asked curiously.

"You name it, I've got it," he promised.

"Can I have a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, with the crusts cut off? I don't like those."

"No crusts," Vincent promised.

"And I like for the cheese to be really melty. That's how my mommy makes it."

"Melty cheese coming up; do you want it cut in half in a triangle, or a rectangle?"

"Triangle please!" Jo said with a broad grin. "And can I have a cookie too?

"Cookies," Vincent said happily as he rubbed his hands together. "I could spend all day on this."

Carter saw Zane and Allison come through the door, and he made eye contact with Allison. Allison said something to Zane and he nodded then went and sat in one of the empty upholstered chairs and began typing on his laptop. Motioning for Vince to watch Jo, Carter stepped towards the door where Allison waited for him.

"How's she doing," Allison asked him quietly.

Carter looked back at the grinning child, who was heavily discussing the merits of different types of cookies with Vincent. "She seems to be ok."

"Kids are pretty resilient, aren't they," she said with a soft smile.

Carter nodded, then looked over to where Zane sat. "What is Zane working on," he asked. "I thought we agreed that he was going to stay back at GD?"

"Well, Fargo was going through Jo's personnel file, but there's no contact information on who to call in case of an emergency, so Zane's trying to do some digging to locate her family. We may want to consider getting them out here."

Carter put his hands on his hips and lowered his voice so that they wouldn't be overheard. "Is she going to….is it going to come to that?"

"I don't know what exactly this artifact is that Fargo is talking about, but given how upset he was, I'm thinking that we need to be prepared."

"Allison," he said concern mounting. "We have to find a way to help her. If this thing is hurting her…."

"Carter, look," she said nodding towards where Jo sat. "Right now, she's healthy, and happy. We just need to keep her safe for a few hours until the team from Warehouse 13 gets here, and then we'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with." She lifted her hand to his face and brushed her fingers over his cheek. "It's going to be ok," she promised him, and then she pressed a kiss to his cheek and walked over to the counter to sit down.

Jo sat humming a little tune to herself as Allison ordered her food to go. "I have to get back to the lab," she told Carter. "The NLWPs lab is testing a new prototype of the law enforcement expansion unit, and after their last debacle with the riot suppression unit Fargo has asked me to be on hand when they test their new system. They have a demonstration planned for Mansfield tomorrow morning."

"Law enforcement expansion?" Carter asked as Vince brought him his drink. "What's that supposed to do, make us taller?"

Allison smiled. "No, it's designed to allow for a single officer of the law to be able to tap into the minds and bodies of other citizens and link them telepathically to one another so that without any training they could assist law enforcement. It's like an instant police force at your command."

Carter frowned, not liking what he was hearing. "So it takes over people's bodies?"

"Well, not exactly. It just allows them to link together to work as a team. Let's say that you were the person who was using the unit. You would give out these sensors that every day ordinary citizens would wear, and it would allow you to see what they see, and react for them, like a central unit of command. You could be everywhere, without leaving a central post. You would be able to use the years of training that you have to diffuse a situation without actually having to be present."

Carter shook his head. "I don't know it sounds too much like Mind Control to me."

"Well you never know when something like it might come in handy," she concluded as Vincent brought over her lunch in a to-go container. She stood, gave Carter a quick kiss on the lips and then turned to Jo. "Keep an eye on things here, ok?"

Happily munching on a crust-less grilled cheese sandwich Jo smiled and nodded.

With another quick look at Carter, and a wave at Vincent, Allison left.

Carter turned his attention to his Burger and fries and began to eat.

Several hours passed while they waited for the team to arrive, and Carter and Andy took turns watching Jo at Café Diem. Vincent entertained her for a while by having her help him make cookies in the kitchen, and then delivering them to each table with their meal. Jo liked helping but after a while the novelty wore off, and she returned to her favorite past time of dancing around the room in her tutu. While the café was slow and Jo was occupied Carter walked over to speak with Zane who hadn't moved from his laptop since the he'd come in earlier.

"So what have you found," he asked quietly.

"It took me a while to break through the DOD firewalls, but I was finally able to-"

"Ah- why don't we just talk about the information that you found, as opposed to _how_ you got it so that I don't have to arrest you later."

"Fair enough. I found Jo's family- took me a while. Her father, Colonel Jerome Lupo is still active and serving in a training facility in Germany. He's been there for almost 10 years now, and previously he was in a forward command unit in Afghanistan. I've got a phone number for him if we need it. Her brothers were a bit more trouble. The youngest- Jason, pilots Chinook helicopters and is currently stationed in Yemen. Her brother Jeffrey is a mechanic and supply driver in Baghdad on his third tour. Jonathan is a communications expert, but his location isn't listed as anything except out of the country on assignment."

"Her family doesn't do things half way- do they," Carter muttered to himself.

Carter then noticed that there was another file opened on Zane's screen entitled Josefina Lupo but before he could question Zane about just what else he was looking into, the front door opened and Vincent's greeting was heard throughout the restaurant. "Hi Zoe! Can I get you a vinspresso?"

Carter glanced at Zane, and gave him a look that Zane knew meant that the conversation wasn't over, and he left to go intercept Zoe.

Zane watched briefly to make sure that he wouldn't be interrupted and then reopened the file that he'd been researching. It was Jo's private DOD file. It had detailed information on Jo's life in the military, and he'd been pouring over it. Mostly to see if any of it would be useful, but really because he found it interesting. He'd discovered that she had followed in her older brother's footsteps of attending West Point, and she had graduated at the top of her class. She'd gone on to become an Army Ranger, and then been accepted into the elite Special Forces- The Green Berets. It was here that he file had become more difficult to follow as so much was classified as Black Ops. She'd seen some heavy action with them during the 18 months that she was in the Special Forces.

Zane began re-reading about a mission where Jo had been wounded in action for which she'd received a purple heart when a small finger began poking him in the knee. Zane looked down and found that Jo had snuck up on him when he wasn't looking, and she stood next to the table watching him. "Are you going to eat your last cookie?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said as he turned to make sure that his computer screen was hidden from her view.

She cocked her head to the side and considered for a moment, then asked with an impish grin, "Are you going to eat all of it?"

Zane smirked at the little face beaming up at him. He picked up his cookie, broke it in half and gave her one of the pieces.

"Thank-you," she sing-songed as she smiled at him and then raced off to sit at the diner counter again. He watched her climb up to the counter seat and show off her latest acquisition to Vincent, her dark haired pig tails swishing back and forth as she spun the seat from side to side.

Zane looked back at the screen and read to himself, '_Captain Lupo sustained heavy injuries during the firefight with the insurgents and during a heavy firefight managed to keep her team together, and complete the mission. She also rescued two of her team members who had sustained heavy injuries_.' The report went onto list more specifics of the firefight, and Zane sat back in his chair and wondered how Jo went from being a kid in a ballerina costume to becoming a member of an elite special forces team.

"She was a cute kid," a voice said from over his shoulder.

Zane turned away from Jo and saw Zoe standing behind him. "Hey Zoe," he said before returning his gaze to the computer screen.

Zoe looked nonplussed at the greeting, and sat down in a nearby, and turned in her seat to look at Jo. "Dad just told me that what's going on with Jo… weird right" she asked him.

"Yeah," Zane agreed absently glancing up at Jo again, who was laughing at something that Vincent had said.

"I actually came by to see you," Zoe said brightly hoping to get Zane's attention. "You've been so busy at work lately; I was hoping that we could have dinner later tonight."

"Yeah," Zane hedged, "now's probably not going to be a good time."

"I don't mind having a late dinner," she said as she missed the discomfort in Zane's voice.

Before Zane could comment further, the doors swung open and Fargo walked in with a stocky looking dark haired man in a leather jacket, and a petite young woman with streaked red and purple hair whom he recognized. Zane watched the man quickly assess the room, and as they briefly made eye contact and the hair went up on the back of his neck. '_Cop_' he mused. Even after so many years, they were still easy to sniff out. The three approached Carter and Zane watched as they began speaking in hushed tones.

"Are those the Federal agents my dad was talking about meeting?" Zoe asked him.

"Yeah," Zane said and without another word he stood and walked over to join the conversation.

"Donovan," Claudia said his way with a nod of hello.

"Special Agent Pete Lattimer, Zane Donovan," Carter said by way of introduction, "and my daughter Zoe." he added as Zoe came to stand behind Zane.

"What's happening to Jo," Zane asked without preamble. "Fargo has been a little light on the details," he added as he spared a quick but annoyed glance in Fargo's direction.

"Had to, man." Claudia corrected. "The Fargonator here's just been following proper procedure."

"I thought Fargo said that there would be three of you coming," he asked Claudia.

As soon as he said the words the two agent's postures perceptively changed. Claudia's face dimmed a little and she snuck a quick peek at Pete, who if possible, grew even stonier faced and glowered at Carter. "No", she said quickly, trying to force cheer into her voice. "It's just us. Artie stayed back at the Warehouse," she said to Fargo, "he's been doing some research ever since your call and we're cross referencing any artifact that has any child related history."

"We'll call him after we speak to the girl," Pete said looking over at the counter, where Jo sat munching on a cookie. "Is that her?" he asked.

Carter nodded, then said in a quiet tone. "She seems to think that some of us are family members, and we've been trying to keep her calm. She gets really upset about her mom, so we're trying not to bring it up."

"I know how to do my job," Pete bit out, and then sighed. "Look, Claudia and I need to speak to her, so just let us have a moment."

Claudia tried to smile at Carter and Fargo but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "We'll go easy, ok. We're just going to…." and she gestured over to where Jo sat and followed Pete to the counter.

Zane, Carter, Zoe and Fargo remained by the front doors and watched Pete and Claudia approach Jo.

"Hi Jo," Claudia said brightly as she sat down on the stool next to Jo. "Do you remember me? My name is Claudia, and this is my friend Pete," she said as she gestured to him.

"Hi," Jo said.

"Jo," Pete said, "we want to ask you some questions, is that ok?"

Jo looked over at Carter, and Carter gestured for her to go ahead. Turning back to look at Claudia and Pete she nodded slowly.

"We think that maybe something strange happened to you," Claudia began slowly. "Do you remember anything unusual happening to you recently?"

Jo looked down at her hands like she was thinking. "My brother Jason let a frog loose in my room two days ago, and we had to chase it around the room until we got it back in the box." She said helpfully.

Claudia winced, "I'm thinking a little stranger than that. The sheriff said that you were putting on your tutu, do you remember being in your room after that?"

Jo shook her head. "Jason yelled at me because I'm not supposed to wear it, cause I'll get it dirty. My mommy made it for my recital."

"It's a very nice tutu," Claudia said.

"But how would this Jo have gotten the tutu," Pete asked Claudia quietly.

"Right," Claudia winced, "sorry-new at this."

"Its ok," he said, as he ran a hand across his face.

"You look sad," Jo told him. "Do you want a cookie?"

Pete's lips tugged upwards for just a moment and he shook his head. "No thanks."

"Its ok," she told him. "Vincent makes really good cookies. It's Oatmeal Raisin with walnuts. They're my favorite," she told him as she picked one up off of the plate and handed it to him. As she moved her arm a tiny silver bracelet that she wore caught Claudia's eye.

As Pete took the cookie from her hand, Jo urged him. "Try it. You'll like it," she promised.

He smiled and took a bite. "It _is_ good," he told her after a moment.

"Pete!" Claudia said excited.

"What, she offered me a cookie…" he mumbled as he took another bite.

"No- look," she said pointing to the bracelet.

Pete continued munching. "So?"

"From what I remember about Jo, she wasn't exactly a bling-kind of girl." Claudia turned and called over her shoulders to the three standing by the door. "Did Jo start wearing this bracelet recently?" She asked aloud. Carter, Zoe, Fargo and Zane all walked over to the counter and looked at Jo's bracelet.

"Jo," Carter asked gently, "where did you get the bracelet?"

Jo smiled at him. "Mommy gave it to me. It's a charm bracelet-see. I have a heart, and an apple for my first day of school, and a fairy 'cause I lost a tooth. I want to get a ballet slipper next."

"That could defiantly be it," Pete said to Claudia, as he pulled out some purple gloves from his back pocket. "Jo, we need to see that bracelet," her told her as he pulled the gloves on.

Jo covered her hand over the bracelet and pulled her arm back. "No," she said.

"Jo," Carter said gently, "we need to see the bracelet-ok, so let me have it for just a minute."

"No!" Jo shouted as scooted off the edge of the stool and ran over to hide behind the couch.

"You're scaring her," Zane said to Pete.

"Yeah, noticed," Pete snarked back.

"It could be the artifact talking," Claudia said aloud. "It could be controlling everything that she's saying."

"Great," Carter muttered.

Carter approached one side of the couch only to have Jo dart out the other side. Zane quickly stepped in her path, and grabbed her by the shoulders and brought her to a halt. "Easy Jo," he told her quietly and he bent his knees and lowered himself to look her in the eyes. "It's ok."

Jo's eyes were wide and tears threatened to fall again. "Don't let them take it," she begged him as Carter approached.

"They're just going to look at it, and then they're going to give it right back," he said as he looked directly at Pete. Pete gave no response, he just stood there watching.

"Do you promise?" Jo asked Zane turning his attention back to her.

He was silent for a moment and then he nodded as he looked in her eyes. "I promise that you'll get it back."

Jo slowly removed the bracelet from her arm and handed it to a purple gloved Claudia. Pete held open the silver disposable bag, and motioned for the others to stand back. "Ready," he said to Claudia, "One, Two….Three!" As Claudia dropped it in the bag they both whirled away, expecting a flash, but there was only silence.

Claudia and Pete looked at each other quizzically, before Zoe commented, "I take it that something was supposed to happen?"

Carter watched the Agents look at one another, and his concern started to grow again. "So now what do we do," he asked them.

"Look-it!" Jo suddenly cried and raced over towards the door, and before anyone could stop her, she opened the door and ran around the corner.

"Jo!" Carter said as they quickly followed her. When they got outside and looked in the direction that she had been running however, the little ballerina in the pink tutu was gone, and in her place stood a small adolescent girl l holding a bicycle. She wore sneakers, long jeans, and a flannel shirt that was several sizes too big for her over a west point t-shirt. She had a purple rimmed hat turned backwards on her head and her long dark hair was messily pulled back into a ponytail.

"Jo?" Carter asked in confusion.

"I'm not going," Jo shouted at them, and she quickly hopped on her bike and started to speed away.

Carter started to chase her a few feet and then stopped as she turned the corner and was quickly out of sight.

"That's not good," Fargo muttered as Jack walked back towards them.

"What the hell just happened?" Zane angrily asked Pete and Claudia.

"Did you see that?" Claudia said to Pete.

"Yeah, it was like she morphed." He said as he stuck the bag under his arm and removed the purple gloves.

"That was my first morphing artifact," she gushed excitedly.

"Can we maybe be a little less excited about the whole morphing thing," Carter asked annoyed.

Claudia winced again but said nothing.

"We need to call Artie and let him know that whatever this thing is, it isn't stable," Pete said to Claudia.

"I'm already on it," she said as she pulled her Farnsworth communicator out of her bag and stepped a little ways away to contact Artie.

"What can we do," Carter asked Pete.

"I need to see where she was last seen, and we also need to do a search on her house to see if it was something that she was exposed to there. But most importantly we need to find her," Pete concluded.

"Ok," Carter said bracing for action. "Fargo, you take Claudia and go to her house, and also swing by S.A.R.A.H. She still has some stuff there that she hasn't moved yet. I'll call Allison he told Pete and have her meet you and show you where she worked. Zane, call Henry and have him and Grace search the west end of town for her, then you take the east end. Zoe, you take the High school and the park. Maybe some of the other kids will have seen her. Andy and I will split up and go North and South. First one to find her call and we'll all meet at my office."

Zane took off towards his bike already on his phone and Carter headed towards his jeep with Agent Lattimer just steps behind.

Claudia hung up with Artie and turned to Fargo. "Lead the way Director Doug." She told him with a grin, "Let's go find us an artifact!"

* * *

_So for those of you who don't watch Warehouse 13 Spoilers (beware spoilers)- I'm keeping to the Season Finale where Myka has left the Warehouse. So that's why Pete is a little bit testy. Foe everyone else who says that Jo couldn't have been a ranger- My Jo Lupo is. Enough said. I hope you enjoyed Chapter 3. Happy Belated Birthday to Erica Cerra- the Actress who plays Jo Lupo on Eureka. _


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Allison and Pete crossed the Rotunda and headed for the elevator that would take them to Jo's office.

"So what exactly are we looking for," she asked him.

"Anything that looks out of place. Something new that doesn't seem to fit. Think back- has she been acting weird lately, done anything out of the ordinary?"

Allison seriously contemplated the question. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "Jo's been keeping to herself a lot lately."

"Is that normal for her?"

"Well sort of, but she has been a little more withdrawn lately than normal."

"About how long would you say has it been that she's been acting different."

"Well she hasn't been eating dinner with any of us for about a week, but she just moved into her new place so I'm sure she's had a lot on her mind."

"A week," Pete said as they walked down the hall, "ok, anything else?"

"She's been leaving really early in the morning to come to work, and not coming back until really late at night, but then that's not really unusual for Jo either."

As they walked into her office Pete grabbed a set of gloves from his back pocket and looked the room over. Pointing to her computer she said, "We need to get Claudia over here to do some digging on this machine."

"I can ask Zane to-" Allison said reaching for her phone.

"The dark haired guy with attitude? No thanks. I'll wait for Claudia." He picked through the mail on top of her desk. "What's his deal anyways?"

"He and Jo have….issues," Allison said hesitantly.

"Cause I'm picking up a distinctly weird vibe there," Pete said as he picked through the mail. He picked up the empty brown box that lay discarded to the side. "Looks like she got something recently," he said as he turned the box over. "No postmark and no address. Would this have been something that she brought with her from home?"

"I doubt it. This mail on her desk was all sent to GD directly. It all looks to be work related."

"Holding the box," Pete asked. "How would something like this get delivered without a name on it.?"

Allison shook her head. "I'm not sure. It must have been a hand delivery. We get them sometimes."

"Do you have to log in anywhere when packages like this are brought in?"

Allison nodded. "They all have to go through Security and be scanned for foreign containments."

"Well the artifact got through undetected somehow. Lets have Security pull up a list of all packages brought into the building for the past week, and see if we get anything. Then lets call Fargo and Claudia get her over here to check this computer out.

Nodding Allison picked up her phone to make the call.

Fargo drove his car into the driveway of a small blue house with a wrap around porch. It still showed signs of being recently under construction.

"So this is Casa de Lupo," Claudia said as she disembarked from the car. "Not exactly where I pictured that G.I. Jo would live but cool none the less."

"Well her old house kind of exploded," Fargo explained as he looked up and down the street expecting someone.

"Exploded? Stuff really happens to you guys here doesn't it." she joked.

Fargo nodded absentmindedly.

"You ok there Fargonator?" Claudia asked seeing his vacant expression.

Fargo rubbed the beginnings of a headache away from his temples. "Yeah, I mean No, I mean…." He sighed, "it's good to see you. I just wish that…"

"It wasn't because of a mind sucking artifact?" Claudia supplied.

"Yeah," Fargo said on a loud breath. "Jo's a good friend, and we….. well, I feel protective of her. She hasn't had an easy couple of months and now this. I'm worried about her."

"Look, Pete is the best. Ok? He'll…I mean we'll figure this out."

Fargo leaned back against the door of his car and put his hands in his pockets. "No word from Myka then, huh?"

Claudia tried to keep a smile on her face but failed. "No. It's like she fell off the face of the planet. Pete and I tried to look but Artie, he just…. He told us to let her go. I feel like if he just looked he could find her. God I just hate H.G. Wells," she muttered.

"The author?" Fargo asked curiously.

"Yeah," Claudia said hesitantly as she realized her slip. Trying to brush off the comment she said, "I mean who cares about stupid books about Alien invasions and Time Travel, like any of that's possible."

"Yeah, Time Travel," Fargo said weakly.

They were both silent for a moment before Claudia asked, "Just what exactly are we waiting for?"

"Oh," Fargo said as he stood. "Its G.D. policy that no one can enter a Eureka domicile without the occupant's permission without the presence of a law officer, so we're waiting for Deputy Andy."

"The Robotic Deputy Andy…sweet," Claudia said happily, then turned to look as a car pulled into the driveway behind them, and Deputy Andy got out of the driver's seat.

"Good afternoon Dr. Fargo," he said as he approached them.

"Deputy Andy, this is Claudia Donovan from Warehouse 13."

"Ma'am," Andy said as he shook her hand.

"Dude," Claudia said in awe as the robot shook her hand. "What did you end up using for the skin, 'cause he feels so lifelike." Still holding his hand, she turned it over to see the back of his hand.

"Dr. Fargo?" Andy asked, not just a little uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Claudia apologized, "it's just…he's so Sci-Fi," she said with a grin at Fargo.

Fargo smiled at her, and then remembered himself. "So, we need to enter to enter Jo's house and search for anything unusual," he told Andy.

"Ok Chief," Andy said as he turned and walked towards the front door.

"Chief," Claudia said in a slightly mocking tone. "That's just too cool."

Andy opened the front door and Fargo and Claudia entered. All business now, Claudia pulled some purple gloves out of her back pocket and handed one to Fargo. "Not much here," she noted as they walked into the main living room, where a sofa, TV and media cabinet sat against a wall. "The TV's not even plugged in."

Fargo walked along the outer hallway where several boxes still sat packed with clothes. "The house was just completed last week. We were a little busy so she probably didn't get a chance to move in until this past weekend."

Claudia moved into the Kitchen where several of Vincent's to go containers sat empty ready for recycling. "No mail, or anything personal. What does this chick do for fun?"

Fargo called from a room down the hallway. "In here."

Claudia walked into the room behind Fargo and stopped short. The room was long and had been fortified at one end, where a target dummy sat with several large holes in it.

"Armory." Fargo said as he pointed to the wall behind her. Claudia turned and saw the walls had been filled with cabinets that contained her large gun collection. Claudia walked over to the cabinet and peered inside, mouth slightly open.

"Ok," she nodded, "this was more of what I was expecting."

"So she set up her armory, but the rest of the house is almost empty," Claudia said.

"If it was any other way, I'd be worried." Fargo said lightly.

"So you move into your new house and the first thing that you do on your free night is target practice," she asked as she looked back at the target dummy.

Andy walked into the armory room and stopped just inside the door. "The rest of the house is mostly empty Chief, just a few boxes in her bedroom upstairs. Nothing unusual or out of place." Suddenly Andy squinted and tilted his head to the side. "Interesting," he said in his robotic tone.

"What?" Fargo asked as he followed his gaze to the test dummy.

"Miss Lupo and I have spent numerous hours on the General Dynamics Target Range in the past few months. Her aim has always been very accurate, but from the look of that target dummy it's off by .087 inches."

"That's not good," Fargo muttered.

"What, so she's a little off on her aim, that's no big right?" Claudia said not understanding.

"Jo's aim is never off," Fargo said as his phone rang. "Dr. Fargo" he answered. He glanced up at Claudia and nodded as he listened. "Ok, we'll be there in 15 minutes," he promised, and he hung up. "That was Dr. Blake. They need your computer skills back at GD to look over Jo's computer."

"Then let's roll _Chief_," she said with a grin.

Zane drove through the windy roads of Eureka heading West back towards GD. He'd been driving around on his motorcycle for almost an hour and hadn't seen any sign of young Jo. Frustrated he began the journey back into town when he spotted her bicycle propped up next to the bridge. Slowing down he pulled over and turned off his engine. It was then that he noticed the small trail leading down towards the water and decided to follow it.

The trail led down to the small slowly flowing stream below, and standing in the shallows at the edge of the water was Jo.

"We've been looking for you," Zane called out to her as he approached the water's edge.

"So what," Jo yelled back over her shoulder still peering down at the waters surface. "I'm not going back and that's that."

Zane took a seat on a nearby fallen log, and pulled out his PDA and sent a quick text to carter.

"Not going...where," Zane asked.

"Just because my dad has to go all over the world, I'm stuck going to some stupid all girl school. They don't even have a baseball team. I mean what does he expect me to do? Play with those freaks?"

Trying to keep up, Zane nodded. "Ok."

Looking back over at him, Jo snarked. "Ok?" And she blew out a breath so that the loose tendrils of her hair moved away from her face. "You guidance counselors are all the same." Seeing his PDA she pointed a finger at him. "Don't even think about calling him here. I'm not going and he can't make me."

Zane held up his PDA and put it in his pocket. "I am officially unarmed."

Nodding, Jo turned her attention back to the water.

"What are you doing," he asked.

"I saw a frog sitting over here and I want to get him. He's a whopper too," she said excitedly. "Bigger than that stupid frog my brother Jason has."

"That would be Jason the dork- right?" Zane asked with a grin.

Jo turned and smiled. "Yeah- he's a real doofus." But then her smiled faded. "But the boys will hang out with him, and I'm stuck trying to fit into this stupid town." She sighed. "I hate it here."

"Where's here," Zane asked.

"Doesn't matter," she replied. "It's always the same. A new school, no friends. Why can't he just leave the Army," she asked as she whirled back at Zane, water droplets flying as she gestured. "Why is it always so much more important than…" and then she was silent.

"Than you," Zane prompted

Jo nodded slowly and turned back to stare at the water.

Feeling uncomfortable, Zane fished around for something more to talk to her about. "Who goes to West Point," Zane asked.

Jo looked down at her shirt and pulled it away from her as if she'd forgotten that she was wearing it. "It belongs to my brother Jonathan," she said with a ghost of a smile, then looked up at him. "He just started there. He plays on the football team."

"And you're going to go to school there one day."

Jo walked closer into shore and pulled at the various weeds there while she spoke. "I don't know," she said. "My brother Jason said that he's going to go into the Army, and Jeffrey is already enlisted. I don't like the moving around part though." She grinned. "When I grow up I want to have a house, with a yard so I can have a dog. I want to live in a place long enough to make some friends." She turned to look back down at the water and said so softly that Zane almost missed it. "I just don't want to be alone anymore."

A noise from up on the bridge alerted them to the passing and stopping of cars. Sheriff Carter's head appeared over the railing as he hailed Zane with a wave.

Jo whirled to face Zane. "You called him?"

"Hey, Jo, listen. I had to. We were worried when you took off like that."

"I hate you," she yelled at him, and stomped back towards the trail that led up to the bridge.

Zane grimaced and shoved his hands deep in his pockets as he walked back up the trail. Once back on the road he found Carter putting the angry young Jo in the backseat of the jeep. Carter turned and looked over at Zane, and moved closer to him.

"Listen, Zane, I heard what she said down there."

"Its fine," Zane said shortly.

"We don't even know if she knows what she's saying."

"I said its fine Carter, just drop it."

"Ok," Carter agreed hesitantly. "Look Allison called. Pete thinks he may have found something. Claudia and Fargo are already on their way back to GD and they want all of us to meet there, including you."

Zane nodded and just as he was about to turn to his bike the window of the jeep rolled down and a dark haired teen with multiple earrings in both ears stuck her head out of the window and shouted, her voice filled with scorn and attitude. "Are we waiting for much of anything, 'cause I can see my life flashing before my eyes right now." At the sight of their collective stares and silence, she raised her eyebrows and mocked them. "Dying…of …Boredom…..Jeez, no sense of humor…check!" She pulled her head back inside the jeep and flipped her long dark hair that was now streaked with red and purple.

Carter stared at the new Teen Jo and muttered, "Oh this can't be good."


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry for the delay, writing Pete without Myka is harder to do than I thought. More chapters should follow more quickly now. Happy belated Veterans day to those who serve at home and abroad!_

Chapter 5

Pete and Allison sat on the couch in Fargo's office reviewing files from Security while Claudia typed away on the computer, with Fargo watching over her shoulder.

"My partner, Myka, is the one who usually see's the people connection," Pete said to Allison, "I'm more of a vibe kind of guy, and right now my gut is telling me that something is off." He pointed to the computer notepad "According to those records from security, your friend Zane is here on qualified parole, and that he and Jo don't always get along."

"Well," Allison hedged, "technically that's true, but Zane would never-"

Claudia interrupted with a grunt of disapproval that got Pete's attention. "What did you find?"

"It's more like what I didn't find. There was a tracer put on her computer log in that went off this morning. I can see that it was there, but I'm still digging to find out who put it there." She shook her head. "Whoever it was they covered their tracks really well."

Fargo exchanged a look with Allison over the top of Claudia's head.

"What was that about?" Pete asked looking between the both of them.

"Fargo," Allison chastised, "you can't possibly believe…."

"I don't want to," Fargo replied, "but he's a hacker and one of the few people that I can think of who would have been able to cover his tracks this well."

"Looks like we need to have a chat with Mr. Attitude," Pete stated. "Where are they?"

"Carter and Zane should be back with Jo at any moment," turning to Pete Allison said, "but you're wrong. Zane couldn't have done this."

"Done what?" Carter asked as he walked in the room holding Teen Jo's arm. Zane followed him into the office his hands shoved deep in his jeans pockets, and leaned against the nearby wall where he stared overtly at Jo.

"We need to have a talk with Mr. up-standing Citizen here," Pete said as he approached Zane.

"Great," Jo said as she tried to shake free of Carter's arm, "can I go now?"

Carter just shook his head at her in annoyance, and looked back and forth between Pete and Zane, "What's going on."

"We're just trying to figure out who put a tracker on Jo's computer log in.

"Right, let's all blame the felon," Zane said in annoyance.

"Zane," Carter asked. "Tell me you didn't do this."

"You can't possibly think that I had something to do with this," he said gesturing at Jo.

Allison took the teen-Jo by the arm, and said to the room, "I don't think Jo needs to be here for this, I'm just going to take her down to the infirmary with me, ok?"

"Yeah, why don't you do that," Carter said still watching Zane's face.

As Allison and Jo left the room, Henry entered. "What's going on," he asked.

"Zane was just about to tell us why he's been tracking when Jo's been logging online."

"Carter, I didn't do anyt-"

"Just answer the question," Pete interrupted.

Zane glared at Pete for a moment, before he nodded. "Fine," he said annoyed. "She's been driving me nuts," he said as he sat down on the nearby couch. "Changing when she comes into work, when she's home, I can't get within 15 feet of her before she's got some sort of radar that alerts her to my presence and she goes running off." He crossed his arms across his chest. "I put the tracer on her log in so that I could figure out where she was going to be."

"So that you could ambush her," Pete asked.

"No, so that I could talk to her. Haven't you heard what I've been saying, she's been avoiding me."

"What's so important that you need to commit a misdemeanor in order to talk to her," Pete asked.

"None of your business," Zane grumbled.

"Right now, everything is my business," Pete said back.

Zane threw his hands up in the air, "I kissed her, ok?"

Pete's face contorted in disgust as he looked down at Zane. "You kissed a 15 year old- Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Zane shook his head, "No, not now. It was about a week ago. We were arguing…sort of, and I wanted to…Hell I don't know," Zane said as he rubbed his hands through his already unruly dark hair. "I just kissed her, and now she won't talk to me. I just wanted to get her alone for 10 minutes so that we could talk, but when I came into the room," he said making eye contact with Carter, "I found her like that, I swear to you."

"Hacking into the server could be considered a violation of your parole," Pete said. "It must have been a hell of a kiss."

"Yeah you might say that. Life is certainly never boring when she's around. Most of the time she's annoyed at me anyways, but when she's not around time just seems to drag."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Pete said a little mournfully.

Zane looked up at him a quizzical expression on his face.

"No I don't actually mean tell me about it," Pete corrected. "I just know what you mean, that's all. My partner's not taking my calls right now either."

"Great- So if we're all done with girl talk now, can I go?"

"If your story checks out, then yeah."

"Look," Zane said as he stood to face Pete, "the only person whose going to be able to tell you what happened is currently trapped in her 15 year old body, and you," he said as he poked Pete in the chest, "don't seem to be able to do anything to help her."

"Well sit tight for now, cause you're not going anywhere until we can."

"Grace may have come up with a way that we can prove what happened." Henry said aloud to the room, "We were thinking that it might be effective for helping Jo, but it may also work in this case too."

"How?" Carter asked.

"We've modified her memory enhancement device to search long term memories. We can use it to literally view the memories as the person is remembering it. We were hoping that we might be able to tap in on Jo's memory of the artifact, but it might be useful to clear Zane as well."

Pete and Claudia huddled together to discuss the possibilities on the effect of the artifact and Zane took the opportunity to stand up and step closer to Carter. "Listen, if we're going to do this then you need to make sure that those two aren't in here, and you need to engage the sonic protocols."

Carter crossed his arms and stared down at Zane his face impassive. "And why would we need to do that?"

"Let's just say that you do not want what I know ending up in some sort of Federal report."

"Worried that some of your more unsavory pranks are going to come to light in front of the Feds?" Carter said with a smirk.

"No," then he leaned in closer to whisper, "but what I know about Jo could. You want to protect her, and yourselves," he said with a nod towards Henry and Fargo, "then you'll do it."

The smirk on Carter's face slowly faded away as he realized how serious Zane was. "They're never going to agree to leave," he said as he jerked his thumb towards Claudia and Pete.

"I don't care how you do it, but they cannot be in there when that machine gets turned on." Zane said urgently in a low voice, "Get Fargo to tell them that I've got access to classified D.O.D. technology and you can't take the chance that it will inadvertently be seen."

Carter nodded slowly, "That could work."

"You need to make it work," Zane insisted.

"All right," Carter said annoyed, "just have a seat."

He strolled as casually as he could over to Henry, who was just hanging up with Grace. "She'll be ready for us down in her lab in about 15 minutes." Carter nodded slowly and then said in a low voice to Henry, "We may have a problem." He angled his body away from the Feds so that they wouldn't be overheard. "Zane is insisting that we turn on sonic protocols and get rid of the Feds during the test. He says that what he knows could be a danger to Jo…and us." Henry looked up startled and then turned to look at Zane.

"You think he knows," he asked Jack in a low voice.

"I don't know," Carter said, "and I don't know that if we just do as he asks that we'll be confirming whatever he believes he knows. But if he does know something and Claudia and Agent Lattimer see it, then we'll be in even more trouble than we are right now."

"I don't see that we have any choice," Henry said somberly. "I'll go tell Fargo."

Carter watched as Henry walked over and drew Fargo aside and whispered what was going on. He saw Fargo stiffen and quickly glance over at Zane, scowling as Henry gestured quickly at the two agents in the room. Fargo nodded once, briefly and then glaring at Zane walked back over to Claudia and Pete.

"Ahem," he said as he interrupted their discussion. "Dr. Deacon has just reminded me that per our D.O.D. contract we can't allow the release of classified information to non-cleared personnel. Normally Jo would simply read you into the project but," he gestured with his hands, "that's not going to be possible. Would you mind terribly," he said directed his gaze at Claudia, "if we viewed the information on the memory scanner and made sure that there wasn't any classified information that would be viewed." He jerked his thumb back at Zane. "There's just no telling what's in his head."

"No, that's cool," Claudia told Fargo as she shared a look with Pete. "We were just thinking that we need to check in again with Artie and see if he's gotten anything more on our hinky artifact."

"We want to talk with him before we attempt to hook up your scanner to Jo. We don't know how it will react to any stimulation," Pete cautioned.

"Ok then. We'll use Zane as the guinea pig and check out his story. We'll meet you down in the infirmary with Dr. Blake when we're all done." Fargo said in an overly bright tone as he walked them out the door. He waited until they were gone before turning back to glare angrily at Zane. If you're just messing with us about this Donovan I'll-"

"Be happy that I said something," Zane told them as he stood.

They walked towards Grace's lab, each quietly introspective of their own thoughts. When they finally walked in the door, they were a somber lot. Grace looked up as they approached a smile on her face which faded as she saw her husband. "What's going on?" She asked as Fargo quickly walked over to her computer and began the authorizations needed to engage sonic protocols. A red light began flashing in the corner of the room. "We're clear," he said as he looked up.

Grace looked to Henry for answers. "I thought we were going to try this with Jo, what's happened."

"That's something that we'd all like to know," Carter said as he stared at Zane.

Zane stared back at Carter. "Let's just get this over with," he said as he sat on the chair that Grace had set up.

"Agent Lattimer believes that Zane may have something to do with Jo becoming affected by the artifact," Henry told Grace, "He says that what he knows about Jo, and us, could be dangerous if the information was seen by them."

Grace looked at Carter, worry evident on her face. "What does he know," she asked.

"He," Zane interrupted before Carter could respond, "knows a hell of a lot more than he could have believed possible. Let's just do this."

Grace took her husband's hand and squeezed it for reassurance before she walked over and placed two small silver electrodes behind Zane's earlobes.

"Is this going to hurt," he asked quietly.

Grace shook her head. "No, it's painless." She walked over to her computer monitor and sat down. "Ok, we're going to take this slowly. So let's start with something small. Do you remember what you had for breakfast this morning?"

Zane blinked and nodded his head. "Yeah, I ate a power bar on my way into the office." On the monitor above Grace's computer an image of Zane on his motorcycle began to form. He was sitting on his bike as the sun was beginning to rise through the tree's munching on the last bite of his power bar. He stuffed the empty wrapper in his pocket and stifled a yawn as he put his helmet on.

"Wow," Carter said as he looked back and forth at the monitor and Zane.

Grace smiled at Henry. "It works," she said simply.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "It really is an amazing piece of technology," He told her.

Fargo cleared his throat, "I don't mean to be rude, but we have other things here that need to be discussed. Like what exactly it is that he knows."

"Yeah, ok Fargo," Carter said as he walked back over and stood in front of Zane. "How about we start by why Jo is avoiding you."

Zane turned his eyes towards the computer monitor unwilling or unable to say it aloud, and watched as the scene that he'd been reliving over and over for the past week played for others to watch.

An image of the sheriff's office became recognizable and they watched as Zane was let out of his cell by Andy.

'_Sorry about the inconvenience Mr. Donovan but the evidence was overwhelming.' _

_Zane closed the cell doors behind him. 'Well you can relax because I'm not going to sue you.' _

'_Glad to see the experience hasn't hardened you,' Jo said as she came into view and began walking out the front door, 'Thanks for your help' _

'_Hang on there Lupo, You're not getting off that easy.' He called as he walked out after her_

_Jo's shoulders slumped as she stopped and turned to face Zane. _

'_I'm not stupid,' he began 'I know that something is going on with the five of you, and I know that it had to do with us.'_

'_Zane let it go,' Jo said wearily, 'Grant's been cleared and so have you.'_

_He shook his head as he stepped closer to her. 'I'm not talking about Grant. You- had my grandmother's engagement ring Jo. Come on,' he said as he gestured to her, 'Tell me what we were to each other.'_

In the room Henry, Carter and Fargo exchanged worried looks with one another.

_Emotions flew across Jo's face, regret, sadness and pain before she attempted to smile at him. 'Nothing,' she said finally. 'I have to go,' she said as she turned back to leave. _

_Before she could take a step Zane took her by the arm, spun her around, pulling her into his arms and kissed her._

It became evident to Carter as he watched that Jo had been kissing him back until she reluctantly pulled away, with a look of shock on her face. He noted too that it had been Jo that had pulled away. His eyes narrowed as he caught onto the fact that Zane didn't look like he had been ready to stop kissing her.

_Jo and Zane's images stared at each other for a moment longer before Zane asked, 'So why didn't that feel like a first kiss?'_

_Before Jo could answer, Zoe walked into view and joined them. _Carter grimaced as he saw Jo's face tighten perceptively as Zoe hugged Zane.

'_We should celebrate,' Zoe said. 'Jo do you want to come?' _

_Jo attempted to smile and failed as she slowly backed out of the room unable to make eye contact. 'No, no you two go on ahead, I'll….see you tomorrow.' _

Carter watched as Zane's image watched Jo walk away. When he turned back, he saw that the real Zane had been doing the same thing and was gazing blankly at the spot on the screen where Jo's image had vanished. He finally looked up and saw Carter watching him, and without a word he began to stare down at his folded hands.

"How did you figure it out," Carter asked him.

Suddenly the screen was filled with multiple images and snippets of conversation.

'_Yes, I'll Marry You.' _

'_Zane!'_

'_There has to be a reason you and those birds fell out of the sky.'_

'_You don't have to be that guy.'_

'_So the word is that Sheriff Carter broke it off it with Dr. Fontana so that he can start to date Dr. Blake? That's weird.'_

'_Don't tempt me.'_

'_Underneath that snarky posturing is a decent guy.'_

'_You and I we just don't fit.'_

'_Why is Dr. Fargo so chummy with the new historian?'_

'_I've been romanticizing our entire relationship.'_

'_If you want to hang out with Zoe, then go ahead…I'm done.'_

'_What are you d-?'_

'_What kind of feeling?_

'_What are you doing with my grandmother's ring Jo?'_

_I know you didn't Kevin, because I did.'_

'_Sonic protocols, this just gets curiouser, and curiouser.'_

"_Zane I know it's a stretch, but if you could try not to be a selfish jackass.'_

'_You'd be aiding an escaped prisoner'_

'_Yeah, maybe I'm milking it to mess with Carter, what do you care?'_

'_Given Dr. Grants unique history his personnel records would be found in GD's Archives.'_

'_I checked those records myself, he's exactly who he says he is.'_

'_Since when do Dr. Blake and Dr. Deacon call The Chief- Fargo?'_

"_or you can stay and fight to clear your name.'_

'_No you're too irritating to be boring.'_

'_Then how come that didn't feel like a first kiss?'_

The images faded on the screen faded and for a moment no one spoke, then pandemonium in the shape of Fargo broke out.

"Oh god, Oh God," Fargo said as he paced around the room, "He knows everything!"

"Fargo," Henry began as he gripped his wife's hands in his, "just calm down."

"Calm Down? Calm Down? Our lives are now in the hands of a man who would happily throw us to Mansfield and his goons to save himself the next time he gets in trouble."

Throughout the bedlam Carter stood quietly watching Zane's non responsive face. He leaned back against the nearby lab bench and crossed his arms across his chest and waited. Finally Zane looked up and met his eyes and they sat silently assessing one another as Fargo argued with Henry over the merits of putting Zane in Carter's cell, or dropping him down Section 16.

Carter raised his voice slightly to be heard over Fargo's chatter, and said, "Zane's not going to say anything." Fargo and Henry immediately stopped talking, and Grace slowly walked over towards where Carter stood. "Based on some of these memories, he's known about this for a while. But have you said anything to anyone?" The screen behind them remained blank.

"Honestly," Zane said, "who'd believe me anyways."

"But that's not the reason that you're not saying anything, is it?" Carter prodded.

Zane merely clenched his jaw and looked away.

"You've known about this, from the looks of your conversation with Jo, for over a week. Now she's not talking to you and you're following her around trying to get her to talk." He smirked. "It's a little déjà vu actually."

That got Zane's attention and he looked back up at Carter curiously.

"So, you didn't have anything to do with the Artifact, that means someone else did, and we need to get back down to the infirmary to tell Agent Lattimer and Claudia."

"So just like that you think that you can trust me," Zane asked.

Carter grinned, "Yup, definatly déjà vu."

"This doesn't mean that I don't have questions," Zane said.

"Well as soon as we take care of Jo we'll think about giving you some answers." He gestured to Grace to take the electrodes off of his head. "Grace we're going to need to try this on Jo and see if we can't get tap into her memory of where she got the artifact."

Grace nodded and she and Henry began compiling data onto their notebook computers.

Fargo approached Carter wringing his hands. "Mansfield's going to be here in the morning for this system test, I need to go back and make sure that Parrish and his team are working on the glitches in the system. We can't afford any more screw ups, not right now. What are you going to do with him," Fargo asked as Zane stood up and approached them. Fargo looked hopefully at Carter, "Can't you just keep him in the jail cell for a while until this has all blown over?"

"We're going to need all the help that we can get figuring out this artifact thing, so Zane's going to come with us. We'll tell Agent Lattimer what we know, and see what Grace's machine can show us. With a little luck, we'll have Jo back to normal before dinner."

* * *

_So not much with Jo as a teen, but that will come out more in the next chapter. Pete always suspects the wrong person first._


	6. Chapter 6

_Sorry that this has taken so long, but I have been trying to perfect the next couple of chapters and didn't want to release it until I liked it as much as some of the other chapters that I have been seeing on here recently. The next couple of chapters will feature a lot of Jo's backstory so bear with me as I build. I will be finishing this. I own none of the characters in this story and no matter what I write I don't condone hitch-hiking. Don't do it. _

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* * *

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_Chapter 6_

Allison sighed in frustration as she spotted the empty bed yet again. She began walking towards the infirmary doors but they opened before she could reach them and the Deputy Security Chief Chris Hale walked in escorting a reluctant teen-Jo by the underside of her elbow.

"Hands off man," Jo was heard to say as she wrested her arm away.

"Dr. Blake, this person was just found wandering outside the infirmary and was without the proper identification."

"Thank you Mr. Hale, yes, she's one of mine."

"Dr. Parrish asked me to come and find out when you would be returning to the NLWP's lab. He needs to run through another series of tests on the Police Expansion Unit and he requires your presence. "

Allison nodded, "I'll be there in just a few minutes. I just need to get this patient settled. I have several tests running on her."

Hale spared another curious glance at the girl as he nodded and left the infirmary.

"What a douche bag," Jo said as she rubbed the arm where he had held her.

Allison glared at the teen, until Jo asked, "What? Jeez, I needed to find a bathroom. Do I have to be escorted for that too?"

Allison merely pointed to the infirmary bed that she'd assigned to Jo.

Jo walked back over to it slowly as the lab doors opened once more and Zoe walked in.

"Hi Allison. I came by to see-" but she didn't get to finish her thought as she spotted Teen- Jo on the nearby bed. "Is that-?" she asked gesturing towards Jo who sat on the edge of the bed, her combat boot covered feet dangling off the edge as she pulled on her headphones over her red and purple streaked hair and began to listen to her cd player.

"Zoe, I'm glad that you're here. I could use your help." She took Zoe by the shoulder and pulled her away into one of the corners of the room, Zoe stared open mouthed at the sight of teen-Jo. "And she called me a delinquent. Hello grunge queen. Has my dad seen her like this?"

Allison nodded as she glanced back, "She was like that when he brought her in."

"I wish that we could get some pictures of this- Nothing I ever wore was as crazy as that get-up."

A vision of Zoe sporting her newly dyed bright red hair sprang to Allison's mind, but she wisely refrained from commenting.

"Look, I need you to stay with Jo. I have to get back to Parrish's lab or the P.E.U demonstration tomorrow for Mansfield isn't going to be ready in time. Can you keep an eye on her, every time that I turn around she bolts for the door."

Zoe wrinkled her brow and nodded. "Yeah I guess so."

"Great, I'll be up there if you need me for anything, but your dad should be back down in a little while with the others."

Zoe walked over slowly towards Teen Jo who glanced up and rolled her eyes as she approached.

"So what are you in for?"

"In for," Zoe asked confused.

"Did they pick you up for hitch-hiking too?"

"You were hitch-hiking?" Zoe asked, mouth open in shock.

"Well, if you don't have wheels. I mean come on, it's no big deal. I would have gotten there and back with no problems. It's just my rotten luck that the first person to pull over was a cop. Now that my dad is going to freak, and I'm missing the concert of the century."

"I know the feeling. Mine flipped a lid when he caught me once."

"I know right, my dad is going to be pissed, but I know how to take care of myself. I mean how hard is it to do this," she said as she mimed thumbing for a ride.

"My dad is always saying how dangerous it is. It's been a long time since I've done it."

Jo crossed her arms over her chest. "I can take care of myself, I mean no one ever tries anything with me. Guys just don't think of me that way. They're too scared of me." She looked down at her shoes, uncomfortably. "They'll want to be buddies, sure, but they never look at me like I'm worth looking at," she said on a sigh.

"Look," Zoe said softening her voice as she took a seat next to her on the bed, "you've just had really rotten luck with guys, but your luck is going to change one day, you'll see."

"Really," Jo scoffed in disbelief, "not likely. Especially after what happened with Nick Rogers last week. He tried to kiss me, and I kind of over reacted."

"What did you do?"

Jo cringed. "I sort of thought that he was attacking me and I flipped him over and put him in a chokehold. It was a reflex, my brother Jason does that sort of stuff to me all the time. I didn't know, but he flipped out and called me a freak, and the next day it was all over school. No guy is going to come within 10 feet of me after that."

"Look, I believe that there's somebody out there for each of us. You just need to find a guy that thinks that a gun toting, security chick is hot, and you'll be set." Zoe said with a small smile.

"Huh," Teen-Jo asked confused.

"Never mind," Zoe asked. "So why were you hitch-hiking? She sat upright, "Don't tell me that you were running away!"

Jo rolled her eyes. "Dude, I had concert tickets to Lollapalooza. Pearl Jam was supposed to play tomorrow."

"Who?"

Jo's eyebrows raised as she stared at Zoe. "Pearl Jam, the greatest Rock and Roll Band ever…I mean jeez they've only been featured on MTV like every other day. What rock have you been living under that you haven't heard of them?"

Zoe ignored the question and picked up the walk-man. "God I remember these," she said, "I had a pink Barbie one when I was like six….." then as she saw Jo staring at her, finished lamely, "it was an early model."

They chatted for a while longer, talking about clothes, and school and their unusually common over-protective fathers, until finally they found themselves discussing boys.

They came up with a rating system on a scale of 1-10 to determine how similar their tastes were and spent their time rating all of the techs in the room; the cutest of which only ranked a 5 on the Zoe-Jo scale of hotness.

"What about him," Jo asked as Claudia and Pete walked into the infirmary. "I'd say a solid 7, if it weren't for the fact that he was so old."

"An older man can be kind of a good thing," Zoe hedged. "I'd say a 7.3."

"You want some perspective? When we were toddlers he was probably a senior in High school or College. That's just weird."

"Well the guy that I'm dating is a little older," Zoe said. "And age is relative anyways."

"Yeah," Jo asked interested. "How long have you been dating him?"

"Well, we're not technically dating, it's more like we're in the talking stages of the relationship. We just mostly hang out…sometimes."

"Uh huh." Jo said sounding skeptical.

"Well he's busy. But he's like brilliant, and funny, and amazingly hot."

"Yeah, but is he into you?"

Zoe hesitated, but said, "Well sure."

"You're lucky then. Like I said most guys that I know can't be bothered to even think of me as a girl."

Zoe nodded. "Yeah, he's really great," but remained quiet as Jo began describing the last guy that she had liked, barely hearing every other word, lost in her own thoughts. After she'd asked Zane out she'd been hoping that he would have been the one to make the next move, but so far he hadn't done anything. She frowned. She'd been giving all of the right signals that she was interested, but he didn't seem to be doing anything about it. He hadn't even tried to kiss her yet. He was into her though, wasn't he?

Just then the doors of the infirmary opened and Carter, Zane, Fargo, Henry and Grace all came in. They walked over and joined Claudia and Pete who were still on the phone in the corner. Zane glanced towards Jo, but looked away quickly joined Carter as he spoke with Agent Lattimer in a low voice.

Zoe was a little annoyed that Zane hadn't said anything or acknowledged her, so she was startled by Jo's sudden exclamation of, "Who's the hunk?"

Zoe looked over and realized that Jo was looking at Zane.

"That's the guy I was telling you about," Zoe said.

"God, when you're done, send him my way."

"Really," Zoe asked in surprise. "I wouldn't have thought that he would have been your type.

"Am I dead?" Jo asked sarcastically, "Cause yeah, he's a solid 9.995 on the Jo Lupo scale of hotness."

"It's just…. I always thought that you two hated each other on sight."

"Hate him? I don't even know him," Jo said in confusion.

"Forget it," Zoe mumbled.

"All the good ones are always either taken or gay," Jo said flippantly as the group approached them. As Carter approached she asked with mock seriousness, "So did I make bail or what?"

"Jo was in jail," Fargo asked in an aside to Henry. Zane quickly looked down at his feet and tried to hide his grin.

"We need to do some more tests first," Carter said to Jo. "The, ah, nurse," he said as Grace came forward with the sensors, "is going to run some tests."

Jo looked like she was about to refuse when Zoe piped in, "It's no big deal."

"Are we sure that this isn't going to interfere with the artifact," Zane asked Pete quietly as Zoe convinced Jo to allow Grace to place the electrodes on her.

"We don't have much of a choice," Pete said quietly. "Artie still doesn't have any idea what exactly this is, and until we can give him some more clues or figure out where this came from we're out of options."

"Ok," Grace said to the room, "we're ready."

Grace fired up the memory device and the screen on the computer projected an image of Jo sitting in a small jail cell. She sat on the cot in the cell in the same fashion that she sat on the infirmary bed.

"Can we tap into the memory of when she came into work this morning, and start there?" Carter asked.

Grace frowned as she studied her computer and shook her head. "The only memory that I'm seeing any evidence of is the one that she's living right now."

"The artifact must be blocking all memories except this one," Claudia said.

"You said that the artifact would manifest itself on her right? Like when you thought it was her bracelet earlier," Zane asked as he studied the screen.

"Yeah," Pete said slowly not understanding.

"Well, Jo's memory that we're seeing here, it can't include the artifact right? So if we look to see what's different…."

"Then we'll get a look at what the artifact is right now. That could work," Pete confirmed.

"Ok, so what's different," Carter asked as he looked back and forth between the screen and Jo.

They all stared at the screen and Jo in silence, occasionally pointing out something that she wore before discarding it.

"Is that a skull earring she's wearing?"

"No she has it on her now too."

"How about her boots, anything special about them?"

Finally Zoe noticed something. "Look at her hair," she said as she stood and walked towards the screen. "Look. She has red streaks all over through here," she said as she turned back towards the bed, "but she has a purple streak here," and she reached over.

"No, don't!" Pete yelled as he tried to reach Zoe before she could touch Jo, but he was too late. As Zoe touched the purple curl, Jo screamed and her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. She collapsed against the bed, unconscious.

"Call Allison," Carter yelled as he reached Jo's side. Zane immediately had his phone out and was dialing.

"Don't touch her," Pete said again as he stopped Carter from touching her with one hand and with the other he put the purple gloves on.

"I'm sorry," Zoe said near tears, "I didn't know."

"It's ok," Carter said as he hugged Zoe with one arm, "none of us did."

As Pete went to touch Jo with his gloved hands her body became blurry and began to change.

"Look," Grace said astonished as the screen in front of her began displaying images, scrolling through at a rapid speed until it slowed to an image of Jo dressed in a West Point Cadet uniform.

They turned to see that the Jo on the hospital bed was now dressed the same and appeared to be a few years older. She looked more like the Jo Lupo that they all knew, her hair, now a solid dark brown was pulled back tight into a bun and she wore the uniform of a cadet at West Point.

"It's gone," Claudia confirmed as she examined Jo's hair.

"She's out cold," Pete said as he felt for her pulse. "Her pulse is weak though," and looked up in relief as Dr. Blake came rushing in.

"What happened?"

"We're not sure," Carter said as Pete handed Allison a pair of the purple gloves.

Allison turned on the vital monitor over the bed, and opened Jo's eyelids, flashing a light into them. "Her pupils are dilating, but she's unconscious." She studied the vital signs for a moment. "If it weren't for all of her brain activity I'd think that she was in a coma."

"The artifact went into some sort of defense mode when it was touched," Pete said. "It didn't react to the memory imager though."

Carter held Zoe is a loose hug, and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly as Allison continued to monitor Jo. The others moved to look at the computer screen.

Out of the corner of his eye, Pete watched as Allison and Carter exchanged a silent look as Zane joined them, standing at the foot of Jo's bed, hands in his pockets. Pete signed and rubbed his forehead. He was still getting a weird vibe about all of them, but he couldn't pin it down. If Myka had been here, she would have already figured out what was going on with these people.

He stepped away from the activity surrounding Jo and pulling out his cell phone, pressed redial. Myka's voicemail came on almost immediately. "_Hi this is Myka, I'm not in right now, so leave me a message and I'll get back to you._"

"Myka," Pete said on a sigh, "Why won't you answer your damn phone? I wish you'd call me back so that I'd know you were ok." He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he continued to talk. "We've caught a weird one here Mykes. There's something weird going on with these people and I can't help but feel that if you were here we'd already have this solved and be on our way to get some pie, or cookies. There's this guy here that makes the most awesome killer cookies. They had like chunks of walnuts and just melted in your mouth it was…" but he stopped as he remembered that he was talking to a machine. "Myka, please call me. Please?"

Pete hung up and stared down at the phone wishing that he didn't feel like throwing it across the room. He definitely was feeling the old urge for a drink today. Depressed at the thought he turned back, cell phone still in hand and found Zane standing a few feet from him working on a lab computer. Pete face went blank and started to walk past Zane towards the others.

"No word from your partner I take it," Zane said as Pete walked past.

"Not that it's any of your business, but no."

Zane glanced at the phone in Pete's hand but before he could say anything Claudia waved them over.

Claudia looked up from Grace's computer at both men as they approached. "Pete," Claudia began. "Did you see how the artifact reacted to her memories?"

"No, why?"

Grace answered. "It was like it was searching through all of her memories for a single one. When it was searching, just for a moment I had access to her long term memories, but then when it selected one, it was like it was forcing us to see that single memory."

"Is your scanner, thingy still able to see her memories?" Pete asked.

Grace turned back to the monitor and pulled up the visual screen again. In it Jo was a young woman and was going through various activities on an obstacle course, in many images dirty and covered head to toe in mud. She looked exhausted but was obviously doing her best not to let it show.

"That looks like Basic Training," Pete said as he watched the screen and several instructors began yelling at the men and women who were crawling through the dirt and mud through a very narrow tunnel made of wires, forcing them to crawl on their bellies through the mud to get out.

"Jo went to West Point," Fargo said as he watched the screen with interest. "This must be what they refer to as 'The Beast.'"

"Not exactly a Party University, is it?" Claudia said to Fargo as the image changed to scaling tall walls and rappelling down the other side.

Pete watched for a moment more before turning to Claudia, "Let's call Artie again, bring him up to speed. Maybe he can shed some light on why we can only see the memories that the artifact will let us see, and why it reacted when it was touched, and not this sensor device."

"On it," Claudia said as she walked away from the computer screen and pulled out her Farnsworth.

Pete watched Jo running with a full military pack on her back as she and her classmates ran mile after mile in formation. "She's one tough chick, isn't she," Pete said aloud to no one in particular.

Zane ran his fingers through his already rumpled hair, "Yeah," he answered. Then as if realizing that they were not only in agreement on something, but beginning an actual conversation they frowned at each other and moved in opposite directions. Zane remained near Grace watching the screen, and Pete joined Claudia just as Artie answered.

"What did you find," he asked gruffly and without preamble.

"Ok, Mister Grouchy pants." Claudia snarked. "So we hooked up Jo to the device, but it wouldn't allow us to see any memory except what she was seeing right now, nothing in her long term memory was visible. It was like it wasn't there. So instead we thought that by comparing the visual memory of herself to how she currently looks that we might see the artifact in its current form on her."

"That's a good thought," Artie said sounding a little surprised. "Did it work?"

"Sort of," Claudia said with a wince as she glanced back at Zoe who was still sitting by Jo's bedside. "We noticed that she had a purple streak in her hair now and not in her memory, but it reacted badly when…it was touched, and Jo lost consciousness and now we can't see it anymore."

"Artie," Pete said turning the Farnsworth so that he'd be visible in the viewing screen. "When the artifact changed we could see her memories flashing by. It was like it was searching for a specific memory, and then once it found one- we couldn't see anything but the one she was remembering."

Artie tapped his fingers on his chin while he thought, but stopped as something that Claudia had said sank in. "Wait, he said. "You said her hair, it was purple?"

"Yeah," Claudia said, "Why?"

"Purple…purple..and memories.. I have to go, I'll call you back." As he hung up abruptly Claudia and Pete shared a look.

"So what now?" Carter said as he asked the question aloud that they were all thinking.

"General Mansfield is going to be here tomorrow at noon for the 'P.E.U' demonstration, and when I left Parrish and his team were still having some problems with multiple users on the circuitry. Fargo and I need to get back up there." Allison said apologetically to the room.

"Looks like we're going to be here for a little while longer. We're going to need to find a place to crash for the night," Pete said to Claudia. "Is there a hotel around here that we can stay at?"

"The Bed and Breakfast has been closed for a while," Grace said looking around to the others.

Carter rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand as he decided." Look, I have an extra room at the smart house, and a rather comfortable couch," he said to the two agents. "Why don't you both come back with Zoe and I, and we'll get you set up."

"Grace and I will stay with Jo and keep monitoring the Memory Enhancement Device." Henry said after sharing a long look with his wife.

"Ok then," Carter said as he looked around the room. "We'll discuss some more ideas at the smart house of how we're going to get this thing off of her. "

Everyone nodded and the group began to split up and head out. Zoe tried to catch Zane's eye as he walked out, but he walked out lost in his own thoughts and said nothing. Feeling even more miserable, she let her dad pull her along as they walked out the infirmary door, looking back over her shoulder at her unconscious friend.

* * *

_Chapter 7 sooner, I promise. I hope it was worth the wait. _


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

Zane walked through the dimmed light of the Rotunda, his footsteps barely making a sound in the empty room. The halls were empty;only those scientists who were monitoring running tests would have been found in their labs this late at night. He'd gone home for a few hours, but he'd been unable to sleep. After tossing and turning restlessly for a few hours he'd decided to return to GD. As he approached the infirmary the doors opened silently to allow him to enter. His footsteps slowing as he approached Jo's bed, the only patient in the hospital on this particular night. He stood at the end of her bed and stared down at her, hands shoved deep in his pockets. She still looked the same as when he'd last seen her, in her presumed West Point Uniform. Someone had covered her with a light blanket, but there had been no noticeable change since he'd left. He glanced at the screen that displayed her vitals and then back at her face. It wasn't often that he got a chance to study it while she was unaware. The last time he'd had such an opportunity she'd been here as well, recovering from a sudden heart surgery. She was so young, but somehow she still managed to look fierce, even in her unconscious state.

"I thought that you'd be back," a voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw that Dr. Monroe was seated in the technical hub at the computer. He must have walked right past her and not noticed. She smiled at him and glanced at her watch, "and before midnight," she said brightly, "which means," she said as she rose, "I win the bet."

Zane stared at her confused, "What bet?"

She walked over to Jo's bedside and picked up a small netbook computer and a small earpiece and turned to face him again. "I figured that you'd be back in here before Midnight. Henry agreed, but he thought that it would be sometime around 2am."

"Why did you think I'd come back," Zane asked embarrassed.

Instead of answering him, Grace crossed her arms over her chest hugging the computer to herself. "When Henry told me what had really happened to him I had a tough time believing it. I knew that something was off, but I just couldn't tell what exactly." She gestured to the device on Jo's neck. "When I created this device, I had always intended that it would be used in assisting people with the loss of their memory, or for therapeutic applications. I never imagined that I would need it to reconnect with a husband who didn't remember me. It wasn't until we were able to share memories across timelines that I was able to get to know the real him, and vice versa. He and I have spoken about it, and we agreed that now that you know what's really going on, that it would probably be better for all of us if you knew a bit more. This way if there are any slip ups, we can help each other catch them. Henry helped me to adapt my device to run off this netbook," she said as she handed it to Zane along with their earpiece. "We've adapted it with a visual holographic interface that I've been working on. With it you'll see and hear exactly what she is remembering and how she remembers. " She turned back and began to gather her things.

"Why are you doing this," he asked her quietly.

She turned back to face him, her jacket and purse in hand. She seemed to gather her words carefully. "I've seen both Henry's memories of the two of you and he's seen mine. In this case I like his better. Besides," she said with a grin as she walked towards the door, "we figured that if we didn't modify it ourselves, you'd just come back in here at night and do it yourself."

"Dr. Monroe," he said as she reached the infirmary doors, she paused and turned back once more. "Thanks.".

"Call me Grace," she said with a smile as she walked out the door.

Zane turned back and sat down in the chair next to Jo's bed, the netbook unopened in his hands. He glanced down at Jo and considered what she'd likely do to him when she found out that he'd been watching her memories, but he placed the small silver device behind his ear lobe anyways and clicked on the small button in the center, powering it on. As he opened the laptop he blinked as the image on the screen went blurry and when it came into focus he found himself standing in a large hall surrounded by men and women in uniform.

He turned around, computer still in hand and stared at the large banner filled Hall. For a quick moment it reminded him of the Great Hall from the Harry Potter movies, and he wondered what Lupo would say if he compared West Point to Hogwarts. He walked forward slowly, trying to absorb the details of everything that he was seeing, weaving around the rows of people who were all facing towards a tall dias in the front of the hall. He smiled as he realized that Grace's device reminded him of a technological version of a Pensieve. He'd have to remember to tell her about it later, and he wondered if she would get the reference.

He stopped as she spotted Jo standing in a nearby row with some of her classmates, and he began to walk towards her. She stood, like the others with her hands behind her back in some sort of parade-rest stance. As he got close, he couldn't help himself, he waved his hand in front of her face to see if could see him, but she stared through him unseeing, her attention fixed only on the stage in the front of the room and the man in the uniform who was speaking.

"You are ensuring a new generation of the finest military history of our great nation. I am pleased to be the first to congratulate you, the Class of 1999 to your final days at West Point."

As he finished speaking, another man stepped forward and said in a loud booming voice, "Dismissed." A loud cheer echoed around the room as men and women began to rush around and hug one another, some piling on top of one another chanting about their A and B companies. Zane wandered forward through the crowd looking for Jo. He finally spotted her standing nearby one of the clusters that was chanting 'B Squad'. She stood a little apart from the group stoically watching the leaders of the chant in the center. As he drew near he realized that one guy in particular was on the receiving end of her stare. He was a tall man, blond hair and blue eyed, and Zane noticed that he seemed to be leading the chanting of that particular group and watched as they seemed to be competing with several nearby chanting groups to see who could be louder. Another girl came running up to Jo and enveloped her in a hug. "You ok there Jo," he heard her whisper.

Jo nodded and turned her head away from the tall blond man.

"Myers told me about it," the woman said in a low voice as the group began to break up and wander off.

"He's going to ask her to marry him tonight," Jo said stiffly. Abruptly she began to walk out. The other woman followed and so did Zane.

"He's an ass," the woman said as she caught up to Jo in the corridor as they headed out into the daylight, followed by many of their classmates who were shouting and making noise around them. The two women walked into an open courtyard that was filled with large banners describing various senior activities. One of them caught Jo's eye, and she looked sideways at it for a long moment. Zane followed her gaze and read that it was a banner describing the Senior Dinner and Ring Dance that would be held for all graduating seniors. Jo looked away from the banner and told her friend, "I don't think I'm going to go," she said aloud.

The other woman grabbed Jo by the shoulder and swung her around to face her as they both came to a stop. "Oh no you don't. Just because he's back with that conniving bitch doesn't mean that you should have to miss out on your senior night."

"Jackie, I just can't. I can't be in the same room with him knowing that he chose her over me."

"He didn't choose you over her," Jackie said trying be diplomatic.

"Yeah, you're right, he just lied to me and told me that he was done with her, made me believe that he was in love with me and made me the other woman for several months. I still can't believe that I slept with him. I just don't know if I can stand to be in the same room with him tonight."

"Come on, you have to go."

"Jackie, I don't even have a date. What's the point in going?"

"Not all of the guys have dates either; you could sit with one of them."

Jo snorted, "Yeah great. Maybe I could sit with Banks or Kowalski."

"Come on," Jackie implored. "We'll all dance with you, she said as she slugged Jo on the shoulder companionable. It's one of our last night's together before I head off to language school and you go off to airborne school."

"Come on Jo," Jackie urged as she saw her friend start to relent.

"Miss the big party? Come on Lupo, what would you want to do that for," a voice asked from behind them.

Zane turned and saw the tall blond man from the hall standing behind them a few feet away.

"First Captain Sanders," Jo and Jackie said as they faced him and stood with their hands behind their backs, at a parade rest stance.

"Now officer Lupo, I didn't hear correctly did I? You weren't going to skip out on our senior dance were you? You promised me a dance," he said with a smirk.

"The only way that I'd dance with you is if I had a knife in my hand and we were in hand to hand combat."

The man lost some of his smile but stepped closer. "That's not exactly what you were saying a few months ago."

"A mistake that I have since recovered from and won't be repeating," Jo promised.

Zane smiled as Sanders smile faded completely. "You'd better watch it Lupo," he said with a frown. "You're talking to a superior officer."

"Hardly. Just a higher ranking one," she said as she turned to leave.

"You're just pissed because I'd rather be with a real woman. Face it Lupo, she's everything that you're not. She's beautiful, smart, and doesn't feel this idiotic need to compete with me. Bottom line that's what every guy really wants. We want a woman in our beds, not someone who we constantly have to fight to win the pants in the relationship. We don't want to have to compete with our girlfriends. I don't know why I ever even bothered to sleep with you."

Zane watched Jo's face fall as she was unable to come up with a witty rebuttal. "Come on Lupo, you're not actually believing that crap," he muttered to her, knowing full well that she couldn't hear him.

"She's an Officer harpy," Jo said finally, "just looking to bag herself an officer and get married. You just happened to be the idiot dumb enough to fall for it." Feeling her friend's energy waning, Jackie took Jo's arm in hers and turned to steer her away.

"Lupo!" Sanders said annoyed taking a step to follow her.

Jo turned back, her face a frozen mask, unreadable and impenetrable. Zane recognized it immediately; it was a look that she'd worn lecturing him on numerous occasions. "I'm done with you," she told Sanders her voice devoid of any emotion, and then she turned and walked away.

As they walked past him, Zane saw that while Jo was breathing heavily, her face was impassive and showed no sign of the hurt that she must have been feeling. Even when the jackass couldn't see her face any longer she refused to break down.

"Good for you," he heard Jackie whispered to Jo, "Never let them see how much they hurt you."

Jo could only nod, as she and Jackie walked towards the common area. Zane moved to follow them but the scene around him began to blur. When the world came back into focus he was in the open bay of a large plane, the loud hum of the engine made it hard for him to hear, but a loud voice carried clearly across the hum as a man behind him yelled, "Hold tight, we're opening the doors," and as he spoke two men in uniform alternately pushed a large door in the side of the plane open. A rush of air swept into the plane and the humming became even louder as clouds wiped past in the open sky.

Zane frowned at the sight of the open sky so close to where he stood, and he muttered under his breath, "Oh crap."

* * *

_Author's note:_

_I'm basing much of my knowledge of West Point through Wikipedia and my friend accounts of when he attended West Point more than 15 years ago. The main dining hall was where they did have assemblies and they did have a week of senior year Activities, although the ring dance is actually rom the Air Force Academy. I just liked how it sounded. _

_There is such a thing as a senior officer of each Platoon in the West Point Academy, and there was a senior officer in each class. That officer, though he was a student was accorded the respect of having younger or lower ranking officers in the same class salute him or speak to him when at a parade rest stance. The fact that Jo turned and walked away from him without permission would have been a big insult. It would also have been a scandal that he was sleeping with an officer under his command, but like with most colleges I'm sure that sort of thing happened. I just wanted you to have some additional information about Jo and her world. _

_Oh, and I know that I stole that higher ranking officer line from somewhere, but I liked it and thought that it was the sort of thing that she would have repeated. I'd reference it but I can't for the life of me remember where I heard it. _

_Up next airborne school!_


	8. Chapter 8

_This chapter was difficult to write. Not just because of the content but because of the liberties that I needed to take in order to keep to the cannon of Eureka storyline. We know that in Eureka Jo has said that she was in the Special Forces, and to be in the Green Beret Special Forces, a candidate s must complete airborne school, which currently is not an option for women. So what I have done is to try to imagine what it would have been like for some of the first female's to attend airborne school and to serve in an active combat zone in the military. I have had to take many imaginative liberties, so before anyone write in to critique or correct, please realize that I am aware of the limitations of our current system. So travel with me to another timeline, where women can serve in combat, and openly gay Men and Women can serve their country with honor and distinction. I respect all Men and Women who serve in the armed forces, so again please take the attitudes of some of the characters that I am about to create with a very large tablespoon of salt. They are my version of how I believe some people would have reacted to a female trying to actively serve in a combat unit. I mean no disrespect. _

_As always I own nothing of Eureka, I merely carve out small spaces in the time/space continuum where I can play. _

_

* * *

_

Chapter 8

_When the world came back into focus he was in the open bay of a large plane, the loud hum of the engine making it hard for him to hear, but a loud voice carried clearly across the hum as a man behind him yelled, "Hold tight, we're opening the doors." As he spoke two men in uniform alternately pushed and pulled a large door in the side of the plane open. A rush of air swept into the plane and the humming became even louder as clouds whipped past in the open doorway._

_Zane frowned at the sight of the open sky so close to where he stood, and he muttered under his breath, "Oh crap."_

He glanced around trying to get his bearings and find Jo. Sitting on either side of the interior walls of the plane were several dozen people dressed in dark black uniforms wearing helmets with large backpacks strapped to their front and backs. Zane blinked as he realized that they were parachutes.

"Today we're doing your first of four precision jumps," the instructor yelled over the noise of the wind. "In a few minutes we'll be directly over the target. Your mission is to hit that target and have complete control of your parachute, and under wraps before you exit the target area. You'll have five seconds before the next jumper is going to be on your ass, so move it. Those of you who do not pass three of the four precision jumps will not be advancing in this training. Is that understood?"

"Yes Sergeant," came the chorus from the soldiers on the plane. Zane stepped to the side to watch as they shuffled past him heading towards the door. He still hadn't seen Jo yet. The line progressed towards the open door and the first members of the line took their positions and jumped from the plane. Zane suddenly spotted a head that was shorter than the others in line, and he caught a glimpse of her face as she turned her head to check her altimeter in the light, a purple wrist watch band also catching his eye.

The instructor spotted her at the same time, "Lupo," he bellowed before it was her turn.

Jo stepped out of line and walked towards him, as the instructor flashed the jumpers behind her to continue. "Yes Sergeant," she said respectfully as she stood before him. He waved another set off before he turned to face her.

Over the howling of the wind it was difficult to hear, so Zane had to step closer. "We both know that you don't belong here," the instructor said with a sneer at Jo. "Political pressure is the only reason that a female was even invited to airborne school in the first place. Well I'll be damned if I have to sit back and watch another one of you get handed what countless other men would happily sacrifice for- Not on my watch. Go home-Run a training outfit, do counter intelligence work, but women don't belong in combat. If you know what's good for you you'll flub this jump and every other jump you take."

Zane looked up and realized that they were the last ones still on the plane. As the instructor had been speaking to Jo, all of the others candidates had jumped, and they were now farther away from the target zone. Zane looked back at the jump sergeant, his mouth set in a grim line growing angrier as he perceived what the sergeant had done. If she jumped now she'd be hard pressed to have a successful jump. Jo just stared at the sergeant without a trace of emotion. She was so cool that Zane wondered if it was the first time that someone had said this to her.

Speaking louder now, the instructor took a step back and yelled so that even the pilots could hear. "Well! Go on Lupo- Jump."

Jo turned and without a backwards glance dove out the open door. Zane stared angrily at the instructor, his fists clenching at his sides unconsciously, but before he could do or say anything he felt himself being suddenly pulled towards the open door, out of the plane and into the open night air. He let out a quick startled yell as he fell, and saw Jo flying fearlessly through the air about 15 feet away from him. He saw her check her altimeter and then flatten herself out as she went into a superman dive-head first. Their speed increased, and he caught sight of other chutes already open along the horizon. Zane gripped tightly to his computer as the ground spun and rotated up towards him. Frantically grasping for the ear piece he pressed the button and the world around him spun and faded.

With a whoosh and a thud he found himself sprawled on the floor of the infirmary, still clutching the netbook in his hand, gasping for breath with sudden panic. He looked up and saw that he'd lost his balance in his frantic attempts to shut the machine off and had merely fallen off the chair. He winced as he stood back up, and glanced around furtively hoping that no one had seen his ungainly moves. Finding himself still alone, he returned to his chair beside the bed, and silently stared down at Jo. While he had been watching her memories she had changed again. No longer in her West Point Uniform; she now wore the jump suit and parachute from the plane. Her face was still emotionally neutral, but he wondered if he now had a better understanding of why that was. He'd begun to realize that when her face was the most guarded, it was also when she was feeling the strongest emotions. She held so much of herself back, and seemed to trust only a select few. With experiences like what he'd seen so far he couldn't say that he blamed her. His first heartbreak hadn't been easy either- not many girls who were interested in dating a 15 year old college freshman, but he'd never have anyone throw words back in his face like he'd seen with her ex.

He glanced down at the netbook in his hands, trying to understand more of how the memory imager worked. He'd only been able to see what she herself had seen, which he thought ruefully, explained why he was pulled out of the plane; she would have had no memory of what had occurred there after she had jumped. But he was impressed at the amount of detail that she could remember. He wondered if everyone's memories would be as vivid when viewed this way, or if Jo happened to be very observant, and he made a mental note to ask Grace more about it in the morning.

He took a deep bracing breath as he opened the netbook once more, clicking the button on the sensor behind his ear, and he hoped for his own sake that the memory of her landing was a soft one.

The world blurred and he was found himself standing in a wide open field, a large group of men in black uniforms milling around behind him. Several older looking men, obvious brass from the looks of them, stood a few feet outside of what Zane realized was a large white circle spray painted on the ground. He glanced around quickly searching for Jo, and spotted her emerging from the center of the circle, gathering her parachute around her arm as she walked. Her face was still expressionless, but Zane thought that he could detect a glow of pride in her eyes. He let out a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding as he realized that she had managed to successfully complete the jump, and then he realized how foolish he was being. Of course she would have succeeded, he'd read in her file earlier that day how she'd become one of three females ever to graduate from airborne school and become a Ranger. He just hadn't realized when he was reading her file what she'd had to go through to get there.

He studied her as she stood off to the side of the target properly gathering her chute up as she waited for instruction. "What made you want this so badly," he asked knowing that she couldn't hear him. He watched other members of the group gathering together, laughing or commiserating over how they had done. While Jo wasn't separated from the group, she wasn't a part of it either. None of the other men seemed to mind having her there; they just didn't go out of their way to include her. He saw her watching the others out of the corner of her eye. "Did you ever have anyone to talk to," he asked aloud again. "Did you ever lean on anyone at all?"

The scene around him blurred and he found himself in a small gym, surrounded by free weights, and workout equipment. There were about 8 other people in the gym, Jo being the easiest to spot as she was the only woman. She was in a corner, her dark long hair pulled up into her customary ponytail which swung back and forth as she worked the heavy bag, her small fists covered with purple gloves. Zane walked closer, admiring her form as she moved steadily around the large bag, working the imaginary opponent with powerful jabs of her right arm. He became aware of several other men in the room, also military judging by their haircuts, and they were also not so subtly watching her, one more openly than the others. Zane couldn't really blame him; he'd often watched her often enough when he was in the gym at the same time. She was very graceful and managed to make a man forget just how much of a force she could be. Unless he mused with a sardonic smirk, you found yourself on the receiving end of one of those punches. As though she could hear his thoughts she ended her session with a particularly vigorous series of jabs which made the bag swing, and she reached out an arm to steady it, appearing to only be slightly winded from her workout.

A slow clapping noise began behind Zane and he turned to see the man who had been watching her openly applauding her as he sat on a nearby free weight bench. "You've got some moves," the man said to Jo as she picked up her water bottle.

Ignoring his comments she began to brush past him heading for the women's locker room on the far side of the room, but the man quickly stood and blocked her path, a smarmy smile on his face as he towered over her.

"What do you want Banks," she asked smoothly, with only the faintest hint of frustration in her voice.

"I've got some pretty good moves to, and I was thinking that we should go see how we move together," she told her with a leering grin.

She tilted her head to the side, her voice bored, "I would say that you should go try your lines on the local's, but German women probably won't have you either, and you'd just give Americas a bad name."

His eyes narrowed and the smile left his face, but before he could reply a new voice from the doorway broke into the conversation. "Banks," the voice said in a warning tone.

Both Banks and Jo turned their heads to see a tall dark haired man who had entered the gym. He stared at them both, his face as impassive as granite. "Do we have a problem," he asked, his voice implying that they may soon.

Banks stepped back from Jo, just a half step and replied, "No Captain Branegan," then turned and walked back towards his buddies without a backwards glance.

The tall man walked forward and intercepted Jo as she made her way towards the locker room. "You ok," he asked quietly so that the others wouldn't hear him.

Jo looked up at him, and Zane saw her relax just a little. "I'm fine Eric," she said just as quiet, and continued walking to the locker room.

Banks muttered softly to his buddies, but loud enough for Zane to hear him say, "Not like anyone ever makes time with the Ice Queen," he said mockingly, and several of his buddies laughed in agreement.

Jo seemed to not hear as she walked into the locker room, and Zane followed her until he stood just outside the doorway, hesitant to enter even in a memory, but continued suddenly as he felt himself being pulled through the open door after her. He saw her turn the corner around a set of half height lockers, her head still in view, and he stayed back trying to afford her some privacy, trying to convince himself that he would turn off the imager if she began to undress, but he turned back suddenly when he heard a loud bang; the sound of a hand hitting metal. He walked around the corner to find Jo staring at the locker that she'd just put a sizeable dent in, from the redness of her hand, with her fist. She was silent; the only sound in the room her deep and unsteady breathing. Zane began to move closer, and stopped when he heard her mutter under her breath, "I am not an Ice Queen."

"I know you're not," he told her, and then frowned as he reflected on his own actions towards her the past few years. He'd been so interested in her that when she'd continuously turned down his date requests he'd mocked her, much as the jerk outside had. No wonder that she had gone into emotional lock down where he was concerned. He figured that the Jo Lupo of his timeline and this Jo had that much in common. How he'd ever managed to win her over before was as much a mystery to him as ever.

There was a rapid and urgent knock on the locker room door, and a voice was heard yelling, "Lupo!"

Jo quickly ran to the door and pulled it open, immediately scanning for a threat, with Zane close on her heels. He spotted the man –Captain Branegan who'd come in and warned off Banks, already running through the open gym door. Jo quickly ran after him, and joined several others also running down a hallway in the same direction. She quickly caught up to the dark haired man and asked as they ran, "Captain, what's going on?"

Before he could answer, they came to a common area, where 20 or 30 others already gathered around a 20 inch television that was broadcasting the image of a building with thick black smoke pouring out of the sides.

Jo, Captain Branegan, and several other newcomers moved to join the crowd, and Zane maneuvered himself so that he stood to Jo's right while Branegan flanked her left. As he caught sight of what had them riveted to the TV screen he understood and recognized immediately what they were watching. It was a sight that he didn't think that he or any other American who had watched it unfold that day would ever forget. He saw her body tense as the reporter's voice came on and announced that it had been confirmed that a commercial airliner out of La Guardia airport had been purposely flown into the World Trade Center. As they watched a second plane was seen flying into the second tower, and a collective gasp of horror and shock erupted around the room as the size of the fireball was seen on the screen and the realization of what was happening began to hit them. "Oh my god," Zane heard Jo murmur, "we're under attack."

* * *

_There is a comic/manga book out currently sold on Amazon that features a back story of Jo. I got it for Christmas and had to re-write this chapter a little bit in order to include the information that I learned about Jo and her relationship with a Captain Eric Branegan. It's a short read, and if you are going to get it I highly recommend getting it used, but it does add a few pieces to the puzzle that is Jo Lupo. Contact me if you want to borrow it._

_Chapter 9- Our girl in Action- Special Forces. Hang with me. I haven't even remotely given up on this story, but I'm not willing to release the chapters until I'm satisfied that later chapters will work with the direction that I'm taking. I'll have more time in the next few weeks to write so my chapters won't be so far and few between. Those of you who have written reviews lately, thank you, they have really kept me going and I appreciate the comments. _


	9. Chapter 9

_Greetings fellow readers. I have been working on these next 5 chapters for almost as many months now, trying to find my muse which had left me despondent with Eureka so many months away. Now that it's coming back, so is my energy for finishing stories. I hope that you will enjoy these next chapters, and I hope to see more people on here posting some great new chapters. 67 days and counting!_

Chapter 9

_There was a rapid and urgent knock on the locker room door, and a voice was heard yelling, "Lupo!"_

_Jo quickly ran to the door and pulled it open, immediately scanning for a threat, with Zane close on her heels. He spotted the man –Captain Branegan who'd come in and warned off Banks, already running through the open gym door. Jo quickly ran after him, and joined several others also running down a hallway in the same direction. She quickly caught up to the dark haired man and asked as they ran, "Captain, what's going on?"_

_Before he could answer, they came to a common area, where 20 or 30 others already gathered around a 20 inch television that was broadcasting the image of a building with thick black smoke pouring out of the sides._

_Jo, Captain Branegan, and several other newcomers moved to join the crowd, and Zane maneuvered himself so that he stood to Jo's right while Branegan flanked her left. As he caught sight of what had them riveted to the TV screen he understood and recognized immediately what they were watching. It was a sight that he didn't think that he or any other American who had watched it unfold that day would ever forget. He saw her body tense as the reporter's voice came on and announced that it had been confirmed that a commercial airliner out of La Guardia airport had been purposely flown into the World Trade Center. As they watched a second plane was seen flying into the second tower, and a collective gasp of horror and shock erupted around the room as the size of the fireball was seen on the screen and the realization of what was happening began to hit them. "Oh my god," Zane heard Jo murmur, "we're under attack."_

The room was ominously silent as they watched the fires burning in the twin towers, and the devastation that followed. The noise level increased as they showed images of the direct hit on the Pentagon and quieted back down to murmured whispers as the news reports confirmed that a fourth plane had gone down in Pennsylvania. As they watched the first tower collapse down onto the street below, Zane tried to keep his focus on Jo and the others in the room, but his gaze kept returning to the screen. Even now, almost 10 years later it was hard for him to watch. As he stole a quick glance at Jo he did a double take. She was silently crying; and he watched shocked as large tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked. He'd never seen her cry before. He'd seen her mad enough to spit nails, happy on occasion, and quietly withdrawn, but never had he seen her so vulnerable. He glanced quickly around the room, wondering if after all the comments earlier if her tears would be used against her, but a quick glance around the room had him noting that her tears had gone largely unnoticed, and he was surprised to find that more than a few of her fellow rangers were wiping their own eyes.

The sound of quickly approaching footsteps was the only warning that they had before two men entered the room, one stopping just inside the doorway and announcing "Attention!" before the men and women around the room quickly sprang to their feet. An older man dressed in an army uniform entered the room and told them to stand at ease. His gaze flickered briefly to the screen and the images of the smoke filled ruins before nodding once and turning back to address the room. "Captain Branegan, Captain Porter, assemble your teams. You're going wheels up in one hour. You'll be briefed on the plane".

A sudden noise from the TV had them all turning to watch as the second tower crumbled and began the rapid decent to the ground below, sending debris and a large billowing cloud of dust through the streets as people ran for cover. The general grimaced, tightening his jaw and barked out the command for them to move out.

A young blonde man stepped forward from the crowd and asked aloud, "Sir, are we going after who did this?"

The Commander didn't confirm or deny, but merely grunted out "Rangers lead the way," and left the room at a brisk pace.

Most of the people in the room had scattered with only a handful remaining behind to watch the rest of the devastation that the fall of the second tower had caused. Zane was so engrossed that he almost missed seeing Jo as she left the room, and he hurried to catch up to her as she jogged quickly down the hall towards her room. As she approached the threshold of her door someone quietly called out her name and she turned as Captain Branegan approached her.

He joined her at the door, looking around cautiously for anyone who might overhear them before he began. "I needed to speak with you before we left," he said quietly. "We're likely heading into an active combat zone. If it's not active now then it will be shortly after we get there." He took a short breath as if choosing his next words carefully before continuing. "Lupo…Jo, we can't do this anymore," he said almost regretfully.

Jo's eyes widened briefly but then she settled into a more neutral expression. "I see," she said quietly.

"Seeing each other, however quietly while training is one thing, is a different ball game from a war zone; you know that," he told her.

"Would you have transferred me to another team if it meant that we could have stayed together," she asked her voice devoid of emotion.

Eric shook his head. "You're one of the best marksmen here. No one else can hold a candle to your knowledge and expertise with weapons, you know that. I have to put the needs of the team first."

Zane watched her face, trying to gauge her reaction, but neither he nor Captain Branegan could guess her thoughts.

Jo nodded once then stared at Eric, her face a mask. "You don't have to worry Captain," she said quietly. "I'll be sure to put the needs of the team first," she promised. She turned back towards her door and as she opened it, said over her shoulder, "I'll be sure to check my emotions at the door," and turning back to the door she walked through it, closing it behind her.

Zane blinked and found himself inside of Jo's room instead of outside in the hallway next to Eric when he had been standing. He glanced towards the door wishing that he'd had just another moment to figure out if Captain Branegan had been even a little upset at having to terminate his relationship with Jo. "Well you sure can pick'em," he said aloud to Jo. "What is it with you and guys in command," he asked her, annoyed. Jo didn't answer, she merely walked over to her closet and pulled out a large duffle bag and set it on her bed and shuffled back and forth between the bed and her small dresser as she packed. "Is that why we never dated," he asked her, "because not only am I not military, but I'm also not in any position of authority." She moved quickly back and forth to the dresser and her pack, swiftly moving her few personal items into the bag as he watched her.

"Maybe you haven't picked up on the pattern here," he added walking towards her until he was standing just behind her, speaking directly into her ear over her shoulder. "A guy like that see's you as a soldier first." He turned his head away from her remembering how he'd felt about her when he first met her. "Maybe I saw the uniform first too," he conceded, but he turned back towards her, but I see the woman now too." Jo paused a moment, before turning her attention to the trunk at the foot of her bed. Walking over to it, she knelt down and pulled out the pieces of her rifle and began to assemble it. Gripping it in her hands, she sighed sadly, murmuring to herself, "Looks like it's just you and me again." She closed the footlocker, her gun still in her hands and looked up towards Zane. For a moment he could have swore that her eyes locked on him, when suddenly she and the room blurred and Zane found himself starting down at a Jo dressed in full combat gear and protective eye wear. She raised her weapon, pointing it at something unseen over his shoulder, yelling aloud "Hit the deck," and fired.

* * *

Fargo and Claudia climbed out of his car as they parked in S.A.R.A.H's driveway lot, with Carter and Pete stepping out of the sheriff's jeep just behind them.

"Dude, is this where you people dump the bodies?" Claudia asked.

"No," Fargo said as he made his way towards the front door, "its Sheriff Carter's house."

Pete looked at the tiny bunker and then back at the sheriff. "Man, I knew that budget cuts in the government were bad, but I had no idea."

Carter just shook his head and motioned for Pete and Claudia to follow. After sharing a quick look with each other, Claudia said, "Dibs on the couch."

"Dibs- why do you get to call dibs," he asked.

"Cause I'm the girl," she replied smartly and walked through the bunker door.

Pete shook his head and called out after her. "I'm not sleeping on the floor. A place like this is liable to have cockroaches. They're the only thing that would survive a nuclear blast and I bet they camp out in a place like this he said as he followed down the steps. I don't want to-," but he cut off abruptly as he and Claudia stood in the doorway and got their first look at the pristine interior of S.A.R.A.H.

As they walked through the front door a musical sounding voice called out, _Welcome Home Sheriff carter and welcome Douglas. It's been a while since you have come to see me,_ she said almost chidingly.

Pete looked around for the person who belonged to the voice to appear, but no one else came in the room.

_And you brought guests with you, Welcome. _

"SARAH," Fargo began as he spoke to the ceiling, "meet Claudia Donovan and Pete Lattimer. They're agents with –"

_Warehouse 13, Secret Service. It's so wonderful to make your acquaintance. _

While Pete looked confused, Claudia beamed at Fargo, is she like a-?

_I'm a Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat. SARAH for short. _

"A smart house," Claudia gushed. "Far out!"

Pete simply stared around the room. Whispering to Carter he asked, "Can she see us?"

_There is no need to whisper Agent Lattimer_, SARAH said in her no nonsense voice. _I am more than capable of providing privacy, when privacy is needed._

Carter scoffed, "yeah right." As he moved to drop his gun belt on the table and moved towards the kitchen.

"Jack," SARAH scolded. "The dining room table is not an appropriate place to keep a gun holster unattended, especially not when we have company."

"Uh-huh," Carter said with the patience of a man who had been hearing a version of that same line for a long time. "SARAH, can I get a beer." Turning back to the following group he gestured to the fridge. "Want one?

SARAH made a noise that would have been considered a clearing of a throat. _I believe that Agent Lattimer would prefer a different beverage. According to your file you are three months shy of earning your ten year chip Agent Lattimer. Congratulations. That is quite an accomplishment._

Pete stared up open mouthed and pointed up towards the ceiling. "How does she know that?"

Fargo cleared his throat a little uncomfortable. "The house is designed to adjust itself to the occupants, so as soon as she had your names she probably did a search on you so that she could learn your preferences." Sorry, he mouthed to the two agents, flushing a little in his embarrassment.

Pete only shrugged. "It's no problem. Uh, SARAH," he began hesitantly. "You wouldn't happen to have any of those chocolate chunk cookies that Vincent makes, would you?"

A drawer slid open revealing a pantry of assorted items, including a large platter of cookies, which Pete immediately reached into and grabbed one with each hand, and watched as and the fridge turned to show a beverage dispenser that began to pour a glass of milk. _I receive fresh baked goods from him every day_, she explained.

_Your file shows that you and Sheriff Carter share a passion for Baseball, would you care to watch the Mariner's Yankee game_, as she turned on a giant sized TV on the kitchen wall.

A cookie crammed in his mouth, Pete grunted his extreme approval as he and Carter sat down on stools to watch the game.

Fargo took a plate full of cookies and two glasses of water out of the pantry and moved back towards the living room, Claudia following behind as she admired the set up of the house. As she flopped on the couch next to Fargo she was still beaming. "This place is incredible. You really designed it?"

Fargo shrugged, embarrassed still but pleased at the admiration in her tone. "Yeah, well. A guy's got to have something to do on Friday nights."

"It's completely wicked," she assured him.

Silence descended upon them for a moment before he spoke again.

"So, Artie won't check in until morning," he asked?

Claudia shook her head. "Not unless he find something hot, and he was still searching the records the last time we checked."

"Still hasn't let you create a simple records database huh."

"The man is insanely protective about his paper," she said bemusedly shaking her head.

They were silent again another moment, both trying to find things to discuss.

Finally SARAH chimed in, _Douglas, would you and your guest like to use the holographic input on my video system to play a video game? Your records indicate that you are both more at ease when you have a competitive instance allowing you to have a more free style conversation._

Fargo winced and Claudia tried to stifle a giggle. Looking at towards the ceiling she asked aloud, "Hey SARAH, do you have HALO 3? The Fargonater here owes me a match," she said looking at Fargo with a smile.

A nearby console table flipped open to reveal wrist controllers and eyewear that would allow for a holographic interface. As they began the game, Claudia shifted into serious game mode. "Alright Chief, let's see what you've got!"

_I know that the story is a little out of order, time wise. Fargo and the gang should be fast asleep before Zane goes back to GD, but I didn't get a good place to introduce the scene, and I was craving more Warehouse 13 character action. Just call it creative license and say 'Thank you'. A special shout out to Sydnew, Thanks for the review with the great kick in the pants. I needed that. _


	10. Chapter 10

_Wow, thanks for the warm welcome back. I'm glad that this story is moving again, and I hope that I won't be the only one getting the writing bug. Let's see some new stories out soon. _

_A question was asked about the holster. No real importance for it at this time, I guess that I just wanted to see SARAH nagging Jack and that was the first thing that I could think of that he would do habitually, take off his belt and gun holster and leave it on the table. I don't think that we've ever actually seen him fire a gun…have we? Hmmmmmm, something to think about._

_I own nothing here except for the hours and hours of lost time on the metro as I write my chapters. Slight spoiler alert. For those of you who are interested in reading Eureka Vol. 1, written by the executive producer, there are spoilers to that story in here. It's a decent read for a graphic novel. Please also note that due to the violence/death in this and possible later chapters I have changed this stories rating to M. _

Chapter 10

_Jo paused a moment, before turning her attention to the trunk at the foot of her bed. Walking over to it, she knelt down, pulled out the pieces of her rifle and began to assemble it. Once assempled she stared at it in her hands and sighing sadly, murmured to herself, "Looks like it's just you and me again." She closed the lid to the footlocker, gun still in her hands and looked up. For a moment Zane could have sworn that her eyes locked on him, when suddenly she and the room blurred, and he found himself staring down at her now dressed in full combat gear and protective purple eye wear. She quickly raised her weapon, pointing it at something unseen over his shoulder, yelled "Hit the deck," and fired._

As Zane hit the floor he realized that the scene around him had shifted completely and that they were no longer in Frankfurt Germany. Instead, he discovered they were standing in a mountainous desert with automatic gun fire exploding all around them. Well, he mused, not standing so much, as he and the rest of Jo's team crouched, huddled, or crawled towards cover as they returned fire. Jo was positioned near the front of the group, and was taking shelter behind a small boulder as she attempted to lay cover fire so that other members of her team could get in the clear. He heard the man on the other side of Jo yell for everyone to take cover as the rocky ledge about 50 yards away erupted again with automatic gun fire. As Jo quickly reloaded her weapon with a swift precision that few could have duplicated, Zane realized that the man who was giving the orders was Captain Branegan from her previous memory.

As she began to return fire he heard her mutter to Branegan, "It's Afghanistan, what kind of cover do you expect?"

They both turned and peered slightly over the top of the boulder and just as quickly ducked back down to avoid flying bullets. "So much for the in and out mission," she said to him.

"Army intelligence," he quipped back, "don't you just love it?" He turned back to get a quick head count of the team behind him, and Zane heard a quiet squawk coming from his earwig as he received a transmission. "Howell and Andrews only managed to get two of the charges in place before all hell broke loose," he said as he relayed the transmission to Jo. "They're going to have to get 10 more relayed in order to close this road permanently." Grimacing slightly he nodded towards a small grouping of rocks about 20 yards from their position. "I need you to hold down the fort while we lay the final charges. If we don't finish this quickly we're going to have some company, and not the friendly kind."

Jo stared over at the rocks he indicated and shook her head. "There's a better grouping just a little higher up the cliff. I need to get some height on them; take 'em out from above."

"We can give you a few seconds to get in place and then it's on you."

She nodded and scooted towards the other side of him ready to make her move. She scowled at him as she waited. "Of all days to not let me bring my grenade launcher," she said as she marked the steps to the first stage of cover.

Branegan lifted his weapon, aiming it at the edge of a large grouping where he could see the edges of a dark cloth sticking out from behind the boulder. "Don't get dead," he told her as he gave the order in his mouthpiece for the team to fire.

As the air around them exploded in rifle fire Jo sprang to action and Zane quickly got to his feet and followed. He ran after her in a zig-zag fashion, relatively certain that memory bullets couldn't actually do any damage to him, but unwilling to test the theory.

She quickly gained ground up a small path barely big enough for her boots, up the side of the relatively steep cliff and hauled herself into the small opening of a cave that she had spotted. It had a small niche big enough for her to see the opposite side of the canyon walls and her team down below. As Zane crawled into the opening she was already setting up her rifle and scope to create her snipers nest.

Giving the green light to her team her headset, she opened fire and began to pick the insurgents off, one by one. Zane could barely see the glint of the automatic weapons that they had, but Jo seemed to know exactly where they each were hiding, and before long she had picked off five of the targets.

Down below her team mates scurried behind rock formations, putting down charges, he imagined. He could see four of her squad members moving to various positions as they wired small packages of C-4 to the rocks. Off to her left movement caught her attention as a small dust cloud bloomed into the air showing a large moving truck heading in their direction. "Captain," she said into her mike, "we've got company coming."

"ETA," he asked her.

"Five minutes," she warned him as she fired again.

"Give us three more and then get your ass out of there, Lupo."

"That's affirm," she said into the mike and gauging the speed of the approaching truck reloaded her weapon and began firing rapidly at a particularly large cropping of rocks where she had seen movement.

Zane could see the dust cloud that heralded the arrival of the truck and likely reinforcements getting closer as Jo provided cover fire long enough for her team to fall back to a fortified position. Zane watched as she confirmed that her team was out of harm's way, but rather than follow she kept up the sniper fire, and continued to gauge how close the truck was getting.

"Move Jo," Zane said worriedly as he watched her unreadable face. "Why aren't you moving?"

"Just a little closer," he heard her whisper to herself.

"Lupo, we're in the clear, move your ass."

"The truck is almost here. I won't get a shot like this from the ground," she argued.

"We're getting reports that the truck is heavily armored. If they have a rocket launcher on that thing we'll have to dig you out of that cave- do you copy Lupo," Branegan told her.

Zane watched the indecision cross her face for just a split second then she grunted. "Affirm."

"On my mark you move it," he said into her ear piece, aAnd through it Zane heard him give the signal to run.

Her team laid in a barrage of cover fire, but the approach of the truck and its reinforcements made the remaining insurgents braver and they began to return fire. Bullets made pinging noises and bounced off the rocks as Zane quickly followed Jo back down the side of the cliff as they half ran, half slide down the side of the steep hill. She was yards away from her team when he saw her arm jerk and her body recoil. Zane nearly stopped in his tracks as he realized that there was a copious amount of blood dripping down her arm and that she'd been shot. She faltered for only a moment but kept on running, and even managed to get a few shots off with her rifle aimed awkwardly as she stumbled down the path.

She made it to the same small grouping of rocks where she had begun and signaled visually to her team- truck arrival 1 minute.

Zane could hear her earpiece squawk to life as Branegan checked in with her. "You ok?"

"It's nothing," she lied, "I just caught a ricochet." She pulled out a purple bandana from one of her pockets and deftly did a field dressing over her sleeve to slow the blood as Zane managed to slide down to the rock next to her. "Zigged when I should have zagged."

"Good," Branegan said back into the headset, "because our orders have changed. The Brass wants the trucks contents destroyed. Apparently the insurgents have gotten their hands on a new weapon that was being field tested further to the north. They took out an entire squadron to get their hands on it. The Brass isn't saying what it is, but apparently it's more than your standard rocket launcher. They want us to appear like we're falling back, allow the truck to come through and then blow the pass behind it and then take out the truck. We're to hold it here and if needed call in for a precision airstrike."

Jo glanced back at the glinting metal that heralded the approach of the truck, gauging their approach. "We should go in from the left," she told Branegan.

Zane shook his head as he too looked back at the approaching truck. "Jo this is insane."

"On my mark," he told his team into his headset, and Jo and the others watched the truck approach.

As the truck began to exit the small valley, Branegan gave the go ahead and the world erupted into chaos. The C-4 detonated with a huge blast shaking the ground that they stood on and seemed to block the sun with the dirt and debris that filled the air. As he blinked, Zane realized that Jo and the rest of her team had already leapt up from their positions and began to converge upon the truck as the driver and other insurgents were distracted by the chaos. The sounds of gun fire filled the air and Zane lost track of who was where in the battle.

The truck's front two tires were blown out as the driver tried desperately to make a break once he realized that he was trapped and the windshield exploded as bullets broke through. From the back left side came the sound of shouting voices and a large shoulder rocket launcher appeared. Zane ran forward scanning the crowd looking for Jo and spotted her just as the man with the rocket did. The insurgent took aim, screamed a curse as he was hit and with his last breath fired at Jo.

Time seemed to slow as he watched the rocket head for Jo in slow motion knowing that he wouldn't get there in time. He heard someone else yell and suddenly Jo was thrown to the ground as another person fell on top of her seconds before the rocket hit just where she had been standing. Debris flew from the impact and Zane rushed forward, and saw Jo roll a much wounded Captain Branegan from atop her. Blood poured from wounds on his neck and back, and burns covered a great portion of his lower legs.

Jo's look of shock and horror made Zane drop to his knees next to her as she yelled for a medic over the sounds of the continuing gun battle. Her own hands were scorched and a small trickle of blood fell from her lips as she grabbed Eric's face turning it towards her calling his name. His eyes focused on her for a moment before they fluttered closed and his head dropped limply to the ground.

Jo sat in stunned silence as the teams medic dropped down to his knees beside her and quickly took the captains pulse, before slowly sitting back and grimly shaking his head announcing that he was gone.

Zane sat watching Jo as the announcement was made, and though her eyes were bright with tears she would not let them fall. He reached out his hand towards her shoulder but before he could reach her the scene blurred and began to change again.

_So side note from a harried Author. Reasons why you should never trust spell check, my fellow readers. When you spell check names and you aren't paying attention, and the computer asks you if a name is spelled correctly and you say correct all, make sure that it is actually correcting the name. Turns out that "Captain Branegan" is actually "Captain Bragen" in the book. So, call it creative license, call it a change in the alternative timeline, your choice. But for continuity sake I'm keeping my spelling of the good Captain. Much more to come. Thanks for all the reviews and suggestions of the memories that you are hoping to see. I am taking all suggestions under advisement and have a very long path of memories yet to come. Don't worry. _


	11. Chapter 11

_While I was on vacation recently in the U.K. I was particular upset to hear about the Navy Seals who lost their lives in Afghanistan last week. I had already begun writing this chapter before I left but it takes on new meaning as I finish it now. Please read it and offer a moment of silence in their memory and hold in your thoughts any member of the Armed forces who serve and protect your country. _

Chapter 11

_Time seemed to slow as Zane watched the rocket head towards Jo, knowing that he wouldn't get there in time even as he tried to run. He heard a yell off to his left and suddenly Jo was pushed off of her feet and thrown safely out of range as another person fell on top of her just moments before the rocket hit just where she had been standing. Debris flew from the impact, and as the dust cleared Zane rushed forward, and saw Jo roll a very wounded Captain Branegan from atop of her. Blood poured from wounds on his neck and back, and burns covered a great portion of his lower legs. _

_Jo's look of shock and horror had Zane dropping to his knees next to her as she yelled for a medic over the sounds of the continuing gun battle. Her own hands were scorched and a small trickle of blood fell from her temple as she grabbed Eric's face turning it towards her, calling his name. His eyes focused on her for a moment before they fluttered closed and his head dropped limply to the ground. _

_Jo sat in stunned silence as the teams medic dropped down to his knees beside her and quickly took the Captains pulse, before slowly sitting back and grimly shaking his head announcing that he was gone. _

_Zane sat watching Jo as the announcement was made, and though her eyes were bright with tears she did not let them fall. He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but before he could reach her the scene blurred and changed again. _

Before Zane could blink he found himself standing in a large green field that was covered in small white rectangular marking stones which listed the name of the deceased that was buried beneath it. The absolute quiet and almost stillness of the area made it seem such a surreal place after being in the noise and the destruction of the war zone. Quickly getting his bearings he turned and walked towards a small group of people who had gathered nearby. They stood in a small cluster around a flag covered casket as they prepared to lay one of their own to rest.

He spotted a slim figure standing a few feet apart from the crowd and walked over to stand next to her. Resplendent in her military uniform, marred only by her left arm cased in a purple sling, and some fading bruises and scrapes visible around the side of her face and neck, Jo stood silently as she watched the honor guard bring forward the coffin of Captain Eric Branegan. As the minister welcomed everyone and began the service, Zane shuffled his feet, growing more uncomfortable in their current location. Death wasn't something that he willingly contemplated in his life. He was usually more concerned with living life one minute to the next. He tucked his hands in his pockets of his jeans and stood, shoulders hunched, as he surveyed the crowd and Jo. Logically, he mused that she didn't seem to be able to respond to him, but that didn't mean that she wasn't at least somewhat aware of what was going on, and he figured that in a situation such as this there were words of comfort that people should be able to offer one another, but they all seemed to catch in his throat. Finally he settled on telling the simple truth. "I'm sorry about your friend Jo," he began, and then hesitated for just a moment before adding quietly, "but I'm glad it's not you in that box."

As he opened his mouth to continue, a small black sedan pulled up along the road. It stopped and parked next to the gravesite and a man in a military uniform stepped out. Zane began to turn his attention back to the funeral when he spotted the man quickly set his sight on Jo and walk towards her. Zane saw Jo stiffen slightly, and he realized that the man was a high ranking officer, and from the medals on his uniform, highly decorated. He studied the man who quietly contemplated Jo as though he were taking her measure and then as if approving he nodded slightly and turned his full attention back to the funeral. They stood in silence as they watched the guard carefully fold the American flag that had been draped over the coffin. One of the honor guards stepped forward handing the folded flag to a young woman who sat at the front of the service.

The service concluded as the honor guard gave Captain Branegan a 21 gun salute, after which the small group around the grave began to disperse and make their way around to pay respects to the family. The young woman sat and accepted condolences while still clutching the folded flag to her chest while another man stood behind her, a comforting hand on her shoulder. The man standing near Jo left and went down to pay his respects, and offered low words to the woman who had begun to weep fresh tears at the sight of him. Zane noted that Jo didn't move any closer to the gravesite; she merely stood where she was, staring at the coffin, her expression hidden behind her usual stoic face. He wished, not for the first time that the device could do more than just show what she was seeing. He wished that it would allow him to hear her thoughts. Her face was usually such a mask that it was almost impossible to really know what she was thinking.

The uniformed man made his way back towards Jo and stood next to her watching the grave as the cemetery workers began to lower the coffin into the ground. The woman by the grave burst into tears and the man standing behind her drew her close and led her away from the grave.

Zane was startled as the man next to Jo leaned towards her and said in a low voice, "That would be the good Captain's sister, Jessica."

Jo merely gave a wordless nod still lost in her own thoughts.

"It's a sad story," the man continued without provocation. "I knew his father, Eric Senior. He was a good man. We met during basic training, remained good friends too, but he died when Eric and Jessica were in their teens." When Jo still said nothing the man kept talking. "Eric and I have kept in touch over the years, and he's told me all about the members of his team. When that didn't elicit a response, he continued, "He made particular point of mentioning you, Captain Lupo."

That got Jo's attention and she turned her head to look at him directly. Seeing that he now had her attention he continued. "Your name had come across my desk in quite a few reports though, long before Eric had mentioned that you two were working together."

"Sir," Jo asked quietly, a questioning note in her voice.

"I came here today to pay my respects to Eric, but also with the express interest of meeting you." He gestured to a nearby walkway that led away from the gravesite and beckoned, "Walk with me Captain."

Intrigued Zane followed a few steps behind as Jo and the man began to walk slowly away from the grave site.

After a quiet moment the man clasped his hands behind his back and began. "Forgive me, Captain. I know that I have been dreadfully rude. I know all about you, but I haven't yet introduced myself. My name is Major William Cobb, Army Intelligence."

"Pleasure to meet you sir," Jo said stiffly.

Cobb chuckled to himself and gave a wry smile. "No need for any formalities here please, be at ease." He gestured towards her sling encased arm, "How's the arm?" he asked pointing to the sling.

"Its fine sir," Jo said with a small hesitation. Zane heard the hesitation and looked towards her bandaged arm.

"Really?" Cobb said, "The report that I received said that you did some serious damage to the tendon."

"Wounds heal, sir."

"I understand that there is talk that while you have gotten your Captain's bars, and that you have been nominated for a Bronze Star for your actions during the skirmish that you may not be able to remain in active service with the Rangers."

Jo remained silent, her demeanor resigned and Zane realized that it was true and he erupted with furious indignation. "Are you nuts? She got shot saving their butts and they're going to kick her out?"

Cobb only nodded quietly at her lack of response. "I can't say that I would agree with that assessment, but it may be that I could offer a solution."

"With all due respect sir," Jo began, "I'm not very interested in a path towards Army Intelligence."

Cobb stopped and turned to face her, a smile on his face. "As it turns out I'm not offering you a job in Army Intelligence. What I am offering is an opportunity that few in this country will ever have in their lives. A chance to make a difference in a way that you could not even begin to imagine. This job is not easy. Its clearance level is beyond that of top secret, and you will never be able to tell your family what goes on there. But on the bright side it's a stateside post that comes with a permanent residence and a civilian salary. You'll have access to resources that you can't even begin to imagine."

Jo's head tilted to the side as she considered his words and Zane began to put the pieces together. "Wait a minute," he said as he looked back and forth between the two of them, "This is your job interview for Eureka, isn't it?" He looked at Cobb with new interest. "So this is the guy that brought you to Eureka."

Cobb gestured for them to continue walking. "Come and try it out for 6 months, and if it's not everything that you had hoped then I will personally see to it that you are reinstated at your same grade and rank with your choice of assignment. I feel that I have to warn you though, my town will grow on you."

Jo was silent as they made their way back towards the car as she considered, and as they stopped she blurted out, "Major, why me?"

As Cobb opened up his car door he turned to face her, "Long before Eric mentioned your name to me I heard reports of this spit fire that was working her way through the halls of West Point and then again as you graduated top of your class in the Ranger outfit. They say your marksmanship is unequaled and your attitude is exemplary as that of an Army officer."

Jo lifted her chin just a little in pride but Zane thought he spotted a slight blush spreading over her cheeks.

Cobb reached into the car and drew out a thick manila envelope and a sheet of paper. "It was my intention to let you finish out your tour before seeking you out, but recent events have allowed me to move that timetable up."

Handing her manila envelope, the sheet of paper and the pen, he pointed to the bottom line, and instructed her to sign. "It's a confidentially agreement. The details of the assignment and your new orders are inside along with a schedule and contact numbers to make arrangements for transportation of your belongings."

"Thank you Major Cobb," Jo said her face a little dazed.

The man gave another smile, "Call me Sheriff Cobb, that's what everyone else does."

Jo signed the paperwork and handed it back to him, Cobb smiled and held out his hand to Jo. "Rest up. We'll look forward to seeing you in Eureka, Captain Lupo; or should I say, 'Deputy' Lupo," and as they shook hands the world blurred.

The world once again came into focus and Zane found himself standing in an unfamiliar hallway festooned with General Dynamics logos. The layout was slightly different than what he was used to seeing and he realized that they must have changed it before his own arrival four years prior. He gave a quick smirk as he wondered what catastrophe would have been so bad as to have made them change the entire layout of GD.

As he turned to get a better view of the hallway he spotted Jo walking with Sheriff Cobb, both dressed in the familiar tan uniform of the sheriff's office. He moved to catch up with them as they were intercepted by a short man and his eager assistant whom Zane recognized in disbelief.

"Jo," Sheriff Cobb said gesturing to the shorter man, "I'd like you to meet the Director of Global Dynamics, Dr. Warren King."

Jo reached out her hand to shake Warren's, but Warren merely turned back towards his assistant. "Fargo, why wasn't I told that the new deputy of Eureka was starting today?"

"The memo was on your desk this morning sir," Fargo explained as he pushed his glasses up higher onto the bridge of his nose and smiled at the new deputy.

"Fargo, I am far too busy to be keeping up on memos and correspondence, that is what I have you for."

"Yes sir," Fargo said chastised, "Sorry sir."

"Warren here runs GD while we help keep order in the town and wherever needed," Cobb explained.

"And your presence is always appreciated Sheriff," Warren said with a simpering smirk.

"Trying to scare off our new deputy Warren?" said another voice as two more men joined the group.

Warren gave another one of his simpering smiles towards the newcomers. "Nathan, I wouldn't dream of it. What with all the troubles that we've been having in your section, we're going to need all the help that we can get."

As the two men exchanged what Zane could only call glaring smiles at one another, the sheriff made introductions. "Jo, this is Dr. Nathan Stark and his assistant Callister Raines. Dr. Stark is the Director of Special Projects in Section Five."

Callister stepped forward and offered a hand out to Jo. "Welcome to Eureka Captain Lupo," he said formally and held her hand for a moment longer as he gave her a small smile.

Fargo stepped forward offering his own hand to Jo. "I'm Douglas Fargo," he announced stepping between Callister and Jo, "If you need help with anything as you are getting settled I'd be happy to help." Zane watched with a snide smirk as the two assistants jockeyed for position next to Jo, and a new voice was heard in the hallway. "You must be the new deputy that I've heard so much about," she said as she stepped into the small circle and took Jo's hand. "Hi, I'm Allison Blake. I'm the DOD liaison for Global Dynamics."

"And she does a smashing job," Warren said with a simpering smile as he stepped closer towards Allison.

"Careful Warren, we wouldn't want anyone to slip on that drool," Nathan said dryly.

"Jo, how do you like Eureka so far; is the house to your liking?" Allison said as she ignored the two bickering men.

"Yes," Jo said with a small smile. "The house is great; it's bigger than anything that I've lived in for a long time. The town looks wonderful, but I haven't had much of a chance to walk around yet; I just arrived this morning."

"Well then you and I should head to Café Diem to have lunch together. Vincent will be anxious to get a good look at you and his food is simply one of the best things that Eureka has to offer."

"Why don't we all go have lunch," Warren said as he tried to put his arm around Allison, but she seemed to have a practiced move that kept her just out of reach and she took Jo by the elbow and steered her towards the doorway. They were stopped just a few feet from the exit as a loud alarm began to sound and a computerized voice echoed throughout the hallways uttering a warning.

All of their heads swiveled towards the ceiling and Dr's Warren and Stark began yelling commands to their assistants as everyone raced as a unit towards a nearby computer console. Fargo and Callister immediately began logging into their respective monitors trying to find the source of the disturbance.

"Talk to me Fargo, what is it," Warren drawled, a slight edge sounding in his voice.

"I've got it!" a triumphant sounding Fargo said, "It's in Section Four, the-"

"-pressurized water reactor that just went online this morning," Callister interrupted,"

"It's become unstable and we've had a breach of one of the outer walls-" Fargo rushed to finish.

"- and the blast knocked out backup power in the area and took both of our elevators offline," Calister continued. "The pressure in the container is still building-"

"-and if we don't find a way to slow the build up, "Fargo interrupted, "the pressure will ultimately cause a second blast-"

"-which could destroy all of Section Four," Callister and Fargo said as they finished in unison.

As the team began to argue about the method in which to stop the explosion, Zane couldn't help himself and smiled at the sight murmuring, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Finally Allison broke through the arguing melee. "Listen, with the back-up system not responding we need another way to release the building pressure."

"Is there another access point that we can use?" Cobb asked.

"No," Callister said as he studied the building schematic readout on the monitor, "the only way through is down the main corridor. It's the last lab at the end of this hallway, and the first blast triggered an explosion which seems to have blocked our access from here," he said as he pointed at the hallway some distance from the lab."

"Alright," Cobb said, "Warren you and I are going to have to get down there. Jo- I want you to work with Fargo and begin the evacuation procedures. It sometimes takes a while to get these scientists to leave their labs."

"Sir," Jo began as she stepped forward and pointed to the schematic, "just how much of this corridor is blocked."

"Not enough to get a person to fit through," Stark said as he studied the camera feed.

"How far is it from this point to the valve you need shut off?"

Stark pointed to a point on the schematic. "The valve is here, and runs along this back wall."

"Is the valve the only way to release the pressure," Jo asked as she continued to study the ductwork.

Stark looked at her, confusion apparent on his face, but Callister answered for him. "If the pipes leading to the valve were popped then yes it would relieve the pressure. But we'd need to release 25% of the pressure that we're seeing build and that would mean breaking it at more than 14 places in near darkness, and the steam that would come off of those pipes would be highly dangerous."

"Sir," Jo said as she turned to look at Cobb, "I think that I can take a shot from this position," she said as she pointed to the blocked area on the schematic," and take out this pipe section here and here," pointing to a specific line, "but I'll need a sniper rifle and scope."

"That should allow the pressure to stabilize," Stark said.

"Long enough at least for us to get past the blockage and repair the damage," Callister said as he reviewed the system.

"That's a one in a million shot, you're talking about almost 100 meters in near darkness," Warren said a bigger edge of disbelief in his voice.

Jo turned back to look at Cobb. "Sir?"

"She'll need a rifle," Cobb said without hesitation.

"You'll need to rappel down the elevator shaft," Warren said.

"Rangers lead the way Director," Jo said as she studied the blue prints, memorizing the path as Zane looked on.

"Callister," Stark said, "help Deputy Lupo get outfitted."

As Jo harnessed herself with the rappelling line Callister returned with a modified .338 Lapua Magnum Sniper Rifle. Jo took it from him and examined the strange looking sight. "What's this," she asked, and then gave a cry of delight as the sight expanded and created a 3-d visual layout of the surrounding room. "It even accounts for wind resistance," she said awed as she studied the specs of the digital readout.

"So accurate it can tell if someone is breathing nearby," he said proudly. "It's my own design."

"I have got to get one of these," she said, smiling at him in delight.

"I'll be sure that you get one Captain," as he handed her a box of ammo. As she took it from him their hands accidentally brushed, and they held each other's gaze just a little longer than normal which caused Zane to notice.

"Call me Jo," she told him with a smile as she hooked the rifle over her shoulder and turned to rappel down the open elevator shaft.

The vision blurred slightly and then Jo was climbing back up the wall and reaching up grabbed the proffered hand of Callister as he pulled her out of the shaft. She had smeared of dirt and grease along her face but she was grinning from ear to ear.

"Well done deputy," Cobb said proudly as she unhooked her vest and stowed her gear on a nearby console.

"Not bad for a first day," Allison said as Warren and Stark looked over the computerized specs.

"The pressure is rapidly dropping," Stark confirmed.

"We should be in the clear shortly," Warren said, and looked up at Sheriff Cobb and the two shared a brief look before he continued; "Nice job Deputy Lupo."

"Thank you," and then she turned to Sheriff Cobb. "Sir, I'd like to request the use of a similar weapon on this caliber for official use in the office." She handled the rifle and scope back to Callister. "It worked like a dream."

Cob nodded absent mindedly. "I believe that we already have four in the ammunitions locker but I'll have to show you that this afternoon."

Jo's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Ammunitions locker?"

Cobb grinned at her. "It can wait until after lunch. I need to finish up some paperwork with the Director here, but why don't you go ahead and head to lunch," and he turned to Raines with a knowing look. "Callister, you wouldn't mind taking Jo here down to Café Diem and showing her around town would you?"

Callister smiled at Jo and nodded absently at the sheriff. "I'd be happy to take Ms. Lupo to Café Diem," and they walked away without a backwards glance.

Zane realized that he was frowning, and shoved his hands in his pockets, slowly following them towards the door. He didn't like seeing how Raines was looking at Jo. He'd seen other men look at her, she was a beautiful woman. He himself had spent more than his fair share of time looking at her, usually through jail cell bars he admitted ruefully, but he'd been aware from day one that she was hot but it had never bothered him as much before to see another man look at Jo appreciatively.

As Raines held the door open for her, Jo turned back and smiled up at him and realization dawned. Never in all the time that he'd been in Eureka had he seen Jo look with interest at anyone else. He'd seen the aftermath with several other disastrous relationships, but he'd never seen her start to like someone else. Someone, he realized with a deepening frown, who seemed to be a decent person and from what he'd seen so far, was a dedicated scientist. He followed them out the door still frowning and lost in his own thoughts and the world blurred once again.

_I know, you all want more Jo and Zane and its coming, but this story is first and foremost about Jo. Zane has a lot more to see before he gets to see himself. Bear with me. It's flowing but it's still running slow. Hopefully these new episodes will help move the muse along ;)_

_New note….I am still very very very angry about what has gone down this week and I'm not ready to talk about it apart from saying please encourage friends and family to watch the show and make these season 4.5 numbers go through the roof. #SaveEureka_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**You don't know Jo**

**By Pchefbeth**

**I'd make the claim that I don't own Eureka, but Syfy doesn't seem to want it, and I'd take much better care of it. I'll defer again to the writing staff, and for them alone I'll say that I am only playing with that which you created. **

_Zane realized that he was frowning, and shoved his hands in his pockets, slowly following Jo and Raines as they walked towards the door. He didn't like seeing how Raines was looking at Jo. He wasn't entirely sure why it was bothering him now; he'd seen other men look at her- she was a beautiful woman. He himself had spent more than his fair share of time looking at her, usually through jail cell bars he admitted ruefully, but he'd always been aware of her. But it had never bothered him as much before to see another man look at Jo so appreciatively._

_As Raines held the door open for her, Jo turned back and smiled up at him and Zane stopped in his tracks as realization dawned. Never in all the time that he'd been in Eureka had he seen Jo look with interest at anyone else. He'd seen the aftermath with several other disastrous relationships, but he'd never seen her start to like someone else. Someone, he realized with a deepening frown, who seemed to be a decent person and from what he'd seen so far, was a dedicated scientist. He followed them out the door still frowning and lost in his own thoughts and the world blurred once again._

As he got his bearings he realized that he was in a small house, and he could hear the soft sound of feminine laughter. As he walked towards it he could hear low murmurs of conversation, and when he turned the corner he stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. Jo Lupo, one of the toughest women that he knew, was curled up comfortably on a large chair in her living room, feet dangling bare and over the edge of the chair as she curled up with a phone to her ear. She was dressed in civilian attire, something that he noticed made her appear younger than she actually was; wearing a purple shirt and a pair of short demin shorts that made her legs look impossibly long. Her hair for once was out of her usual ponytail and the ends curled slightly as they hung loose over her shoulders and down her back. She brushed a stray strand out of her face as she smiled brightly at whatever she heard on the other end of the phone. She laughed again causing Zane to smile at the sight of this free spirited Jo. He couldn't remember the last memory that she had where she had laughed and he found himself walking towards her so that he could hear what she was saying.

As he stepped closer, she lifted a painted foot and pointing her toes studied the nails critically,. She looked, feminine, which Zane thought was extremely strange. Lupo...Jo- never acted girly. She laughed again at something that the person on the other side of the line said, and Zane wondered if she was talking to that scientist Callister on the phone. The thought made him frown, and he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to stop. A small part of him whispered that he was jealous, but he shrugged that off and turned his attention away from Jo's legs to a nearby table of photographs that she had out. There was a large picture of several men standing with her in Army fatigues. He recognized a few of them from her previous memories. There was another picture of her and a young woman in West Point T shirts, smiling at the camera. Then at the center was a family picture. Zane immediately recognized the little girl staring back at him from the picture frame as the same curly haired girl that he'd found under Jo's desk that morning. A young woman sat behind Jo beaming at the camera and the two of them were surrounded by three young men, her brothers he guessed and an older man who could have only been her father. The likeness was unmistakable. The picture must have been taken during the holidays; Zane could see a tree behind them in the photo. Another frame caught his eye and he moved down the table to get a closer look. It had to have been a recent picture. In it Jo was sitting on a couch in Cafe Diem with her arms around Callister as they posed for the picture.

Behind him Jo laughed once again as she sat up and got off the chair and began to move around the room still talking on the phone. "Honestly Jason, you are still such a dork," she said into the phone, "Just because a girl says that she wants to keep things simple you believe her? Please, all girls want complicated, we just hide it because we know that you'll all run of at the first signs of things getting serious."

Zane relaxed a little as he realized that she was talking to one of her brothers, not Callister, but he stopped smiling when she stood up and moved towards the table of pictures that he'd been examining and she traced a finger over the edge of the frame that housed the picture of her and Callister.

She smiled and said, "Yes, Callister is still being a perfect gentleman. We've been dating for a couple of months now and he's barely made it past the holding hands stage. He just gets this look on his face like he doesn't know what to do with me. Its kind of sweet really."

Zane scoffed and muttered to himself, "Yeah right he's being a gentleman. Probably just trying to lure you in with a false sense of security before he pounces." He shook his head and took in her long legs again. "You honestly think that he's not thinking about it? Please a guy would have to be made of steel to not want you."

Jo shook her head and replied to her brother, "He's not like that, really," then her eyes got all dreamy. "When I'm with him I feel like he really pays attention. He listens, and well its nice to feel wanted. I mean he's this incredibly brilliant guy and he never makes me feel dumb. I mean I know that I can barely keep up with him, but it's nice to have someone who cares enough to make you feel worthwhile, you know?" She let out a soft sigh that was so unlike the Jo that he knew that he simply stared as she moved back to the couch. "Honestly Jason, I think that I could really fall for him."

There was suddenly a knock at the door and Jo stood up to go get it. "That's probably him now. He's supposed to meet me for dinner later but maybe he..." but then trailed off as she opened the door and found Sheriff Cobb standing there, looking grim.

"Jason," she said quickly into the phone, "I have to let you go. I'll call you back later," and she hung up.

Zane moved closer to the door so that he could hear what was going on.

"Afternoon Jo." Sheriff Cobb said, an uncomfortable look on his face. "I don't suppose that Callister is with you, is he?"

Jo shook her head. "No. I thought that was him at the door just now. We're not supposed to meet until later tonight for dinner," but her smile broke off at the look on Cobb's face. "What happened?"

Cobb didn't answer her, "Have you heard from him today?"

Jo shook her head slowly, her face getting pale as she gripped the door. "Has something happened?"

Cobb scratched his head concern etched on his face. "Jo, there was a fire today, at Stark's lab. The whole building went up in flames. The data, equipment, research, everything gone. We believe that it was set deliberately."

"Was anyone hurt," Jo asked worried.

"No, no, everyone got out alright. But Jo, we got Callister on video right before the fire broke out. He was in that building alone. And with the fight that he and Stark had last week..." he said trailing off.

Jo shook her head slowly confused, "What fight?"

Zane frowned as he saw the look that Cobb gave Jo. "Sounds like Mr. Perfect just got ugly," he murmured to himself listening as Cobb filled Jo in.

Jo shook her head, "No, you know that he wouldn't do that, he wouldn't do anything like that."

"All I can tell you is that as of right now he's our prime suspect and from what we can gather he's gone."

Zane watched as Jo's face crumpled, and the light that had been shining so brightly was snuffed out as the retreated behind the stony wall to protect herself. He recognized it from seeing it happen in so many earlier memories that he was no longer surprised at seeing the shutters come down, as she quietly asked if she would be needed on duty for the rest of the evening.

Cobb shook his head, and patted her on the shoulder as if unsure of how to offer comfort. "This is a shock to all of us Jo. Look I'll call if I need you, but I wanted to come by and tell you myself before-"

"No need to worry Sheriff." Jo said woodenly. "I'll be just fine."

Cobb looked as though he were going to argue but closed his mouth and nodded, stepping away from the door returning to the driveway.

Jo closed the door, and stood with her back to it for a few silent moments, while Zane watched her fight to keep her emotions in check as the world began to blur.

When it stopped Zane stopped short as he recognized that he was back in the sheriff's office where Jo sat quietly filling out reports at her desk. Her hair was back up in a bun and she was in uniform and gave off the strong vibe of hands off.

Zane gave a half smile as he saw her behind the desk. "Now that's the Lupo that I know," he said to himself, strangely comforted by the sight of her in uniform.

As Zane approached her, Fargo all but ran into the room. "Good, you're still here," he said nearly breathlessly.

Jo barely looked up at his frantic entrance to the office. "Where else would I be Fargo. Now buzz off, I have to get these reports down so that _Sheriff,_" she said with a tone, "Carter can check off his to-do list."

"Jo- its just that-"

"Fargo, unless the world is coming to an end, or you are here to tell me that I've been given the job as sheriff- get out."

"He's back," Fargo blurted out getting Jo's attention.

Her eyes narrowed as she dropped the papers she was holding. "Who's back?"

He grimaced, but held out the cell phone for her to see the picture that he'd taken.

Zane tried to get a glimpse over Fargo's shoulder, but Jo's face became stony and she took off moving quickly out the door, and ran to keep up with her as she made a beeline towards Cafe Diem. She burst through the doors and her eyes quickly scanned the room before she spotted Callister sitting in a corner booth. Zane stopped just a foot behind her, having caught up and spotted Callister himself. He also took note that almost every eye was on Jo, waiting for her reaction, with the exception of Carter.

"Jo," Carter said voice annoyed, "those reports aren't going to write themselves," heedless of Allison trying to shush him.

Zane watched Callister as he stood up and waited for Jo to approach him. His face seemed almost as unreadable as Jo's. "You're in for it now," he warned the man, but then stopped surprised when instead of the full on frontal assault that he had expected Jo reached up and grabbed Callister's face pulling him into a heated kiss. Zane stood watching, his mouth hanging open in confusion as Jo finished her hello. Finally he regained his senses and moved closer, shaking his head in disbelief. "Wait a minute, you mean after all he did you're just going to welcome him back with open arms," he asked her incredulously.

Jo stepped back from Callister, and said quietly "That was for coming back," and turned to walk away, but then she pivoted and threw a right hook that made Callister stumble back into the booth behind him. "and that was for leaving," she finished as she turned and walked quickly back out of the cafe, promising Carter that she'd finish those reports right away.

Zane nodded once and pointed at the scene. "Yeah, that was more of what I was expecting," he said to himself as Jo walked past him. He watched her leave, head held high, not a trace of emotion on her face. "She never quite does the expected thing though does she," he murmured again to himself.

Behind him Callister regained his feet, and Zane winced in sympathy. "I've only had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of that right hook once; my jaw ached for a week." Callister didn't even appear to flinch. He merely watched Jo walk away.

Zane shook his head and began to follow Jo back out the door. "Damn, guy must have a titanium jaw if he managed to survive that," and the world blurred before he could catch up to Jo.

They were back in the sheriff's office before he could blink and he could tell by the light coming in through the windows that it was late evening. Jo sat at her desk but this time, instead of the stony face she'd been wearing she wore one of shock as she stared at Allison. "He's a what?"

Allison sighed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Callister 's A.I. Jo; he's an Artificial Intelligence".

Zane felt his mouth drop open as he waited for someone to jump in with the joke, but no one was laughing. Gesturing to Jo he murmured, "Wait a minute, you mean you were dating a...?"

Jo had the same reaction as she stood, "No way, no way, Allison I'd know, he's not..." but then faltered at the look on Allison's face.

"I'm sorry Jo, I swear I didn't know. We just found out. Nathan created him as part of a DARPA research project but he's more than just a robot, he's special. Nathan was afraid that when he couldn't reproduce the results that they'd look to closely at Callister so he sent him away. He lied about the fire, the research, everything," she said, exasperation evident in her voice. "When we confronted Nathan he admitted everything. It seems Callister is the source of the virus problem that we've been having, and we need to find him. He's really sick Jo."

Jo picked up the phone and began to dial the number for the local state police to file a BOLO.

"Are you going to be ok?" Allison asked her more quietly now.

Jo tried to smirk, but failed. "Its just my luck," she said sarcastically, "all the good ones are either married, gay or robots."

"Not true. Some of us are felons, "Zane muttered under his breath as he watched her try to go on about her job of finding the missing robot.

The blur happened suddenly and Zane found himself floundering in the dark. The room felt familiar but it was cast in shadows from the street light shining in through a nearby window. There was a sound of sloshing liquid and then the thump of a glass that caught his attention and he turned around to see Jo slouched down, her back braced against the nearby wall of what he realized was her living room. She stared off into space as she picked up the shot she had just poured and with a flick of her wrist tossed it back, barely grimacing as she swallowed the drink.

Zane watched as she poured herself another, noting that the bottle was less than half full. "What are you doing Lupo," he asked as he crouched down in front of her. I"f this guy broke your heart you should be out pounding him into dust, or in this case, I don't know microchips. Not sitting here getting drunk in the dark."

There was a knock at the door, and then again more persistently a moment later. Jo stumbled to her feet and went to the door throwing it open wide, to reveal Nathan Stark standing at her door. She glared at him. "What do you want," she said in a low growl.

"I came by to talk," Nathan said quietly.

Jo turned away from the door, but left it open for Nathan to follow her inside. "Haven't you already done enough," she said her voice devoid of emotion. She reached for her bottle and glass and poured herself another liberal shot.

"Deputy...Jo," Nathan said his voice so quiet it made Zane look back at him. He'd never heard Stark sound so defeated before. "I loved him too."

Zane looked back and forth at the two of them, quickly picking up on the use of the past tense.

Jo merely tossed back the shot in her hand and shook her head. "Machines can't love, and I was definitely not in love with a machine."

Stark sighed, and reaching into his pocket pulled out a piece of paper that appeared very worn and set it down next to Jo on the table.

As Jo turned her head to look, Zane stepped closer and saw that it was the same picture of Jo and Callister from Cafe Diem that he'd seen before.

"Callister may have been a robot," Nathan said, "but I'll always believe that he became something so much more. I found that in his belongings after we brought his body home. Judging by how well its worn he spent alot of time looking at it."

Jo didn't say anything, and Nathan finally nodded and moved towards the door. "If you ever want to talk, my door is always open," and he quietly closed the door behind him leaving Jo standing alone in her dining room one hand on the photo, and the other on her forgotten empty glass.

She traced the edge of the photograph before roughly pushing it away and turning away but not before Zane spotted the tear trailing down her cheek as her head bowed down to silently grieve.

As Zane stepped forward the world blurred more slowly this time and caught him mid step as he dizzily oriented himself. They were back in the lobby of the sheriff's office and he caught sight of Jo walking in, a cup of vinspresso in her hand, and a smirk on her face. Zane followed her into the office and saw her tilting her head at the site of Carter speaking to a young dark haired man in the office whose back was to them. She seemed to stop in her tracks and Zane watched as she sized up the newcomer with what he could only describe as a feminine gleam in her eyes. She raised a hand to smooth back her already neat hairstyle before she continued to walk into the room causing Zane to smirk at her female gesture,. "Don't tell me that you're primping for Carter," he said with a grin as he followed her into the room paying more attention to her than who she was walking towards.

"Heard we got a new arrival this morning," she said by way of entry. Carter looked up, an expression of extreme annoyance on his face as the young man turned to face them, causing Zane to stop dead in his tracks as he recognized his own face grinning back.

_Annnnddddd, he's landed. Finally got to the end, this one has been bugging me like a sore tooth. I have five others that I've been writing in the meantime but I'm trying to focus on this one for a while. I'd really like to get back to what on earth is the thing with the purple? I have a plan, and Artie is going to make an appearance and tell us all about it in the next chapter. Thanks for hanging with me on this and for all the great reviews. They mean alot, even when they are nothing more than a kick in the pants._


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

You Don't know Jo

By Pchefbeth

Wow, so many reviews -thanks everyone! I now have over 100 reviews for this story- a record for me. I know I'm a long time in between chapters, work and husbands take a lot of time and don't leave me much for writing. I'm actually hoping that I get snowed in this winter so that I can spend some more time on my stories.

For those who wanted the scene with Taggert, I know, but even I was getting antsy about getting to this and later chapters. I didn't throw it away, I merely turned it into a deleted scene section which I will release when the story is finished. Lots of little one shots that I couldn't quite figure out how to work in. So for now, back to our favorite characters, at the very beginning. Whoever came up with Zane Donovan in the writers room- your birthday should be a national holiday. Thank you.

_As Zane stepped forward the world blurred more slowly this time and caught himself mid step as he dizzily oriented himself. They were back in the lobby of the sheriff's office and he spotted Jo walking in towards him, a cup of vinspresso in her hand, and a smirk on her face. Zane followed her into the office and saw her tilting her head at the sight of Carter speaking to a young dark haired man in the office whose back was to them. She paused in her tracks and Zane watched as she sized up the newcomer with what he could only describe as a feminine gleam in her eyes. She raised a hand to smooth back her already neat hairstyle before she continued to walk into the room causing Zane to smirk at her female gesture. "Don't tell me that you're primping for Carter," he said with a grin as he followed her into the room paying more attention to her than who she was walking towards._

"_Heard we got a new arrival this morning," she said by way of entry. Carter looked up, an expression of extreme annoyance on his face as the young man turned to face them, causing Zane to stop dead in his tracks as he recognized his own face grinning back._

He stared at his younger self a moment, his mind traveling in a million different directions; first was wondering where the armed guards were, and why he was dressed in civilian clothes. He remembered all-to-well his first day in Eureka. He had been brought by prisoner transport truck from the facility in California. It had been a minimum security facility, the felony charges of hacking had been considered white collar, so no maximum federal penitentiary, but no prison was fun. He'd spent six months there, five of which were completely devoid of technology after he'd managed to hack into the warden's office using a remote control from the television. After that he hadn't even been allowed to be in the same room as a television. Ironically it had been that last hack from within the prison system that caught the eye of someone at Eureka. He had been offered the parole deal, and he took it, but being told where to go and what to do never really sat well with him. Being escorted into town still wearing his blue prison jumpsuit and having to live in the holding cell for the first two months hadn't done much to improve his mood or increase his love of the community.

He watched his younger 'other' self smile at Jo's arrival and caught the immediate gleam of interest in his younger self's eye. But this was all wrong, this wasn't how it had happened. He spotted a calendar on the wall and noted with surprise that it was several months before he was supposed to be in Eureka. "Six months early", he mused and looked back as his smiling 'other' self began to tease Jo. He could tell that it was working from the increased tension in her forehead and from the wary look that Carter was giving them.

"So," he said aloud to the room, slowly trying to put the pieces together, "I...he, never went to prison, but how did I get here?" But his eyes widened further as Carter stepped between Jo and his 'other' self and pushing open the cell door shoved him inside, slamming it shut. "Ok," he said watching as his younger version gave a not so happy but resigned look at being put into the cell, "so whatever I did that got me here, I'm guessing that I still didn't do it legally," and began listening to the conversation in earnest, promising himself that he'd get some answers.

"I need to catch Allison and see just exactly what her plans are for him," Carter told Jo, who was now glaring at the young man behind bars.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth and walked over to the weapons rack and pulled out one of her favorite modified assault rifles and her cleaning brushes. She cocked the barrel of the gun as she turned back to the cell giving its occupant a cool stare, "I'll just keep an eye on our newest resident."

Carter looked warily at the two of them and then hurried out the door.

"That is so hot," Zane heard his younger self say aloud as Jo moved towards the desk, setting down her cleaning equipment and rifle on the desk. She gave him an arched look and then began to patiently ignore him as she disassembled her rifle in order to clean it.

Zane shook his head, surprised at how brazen his 'other' self was. For his own part he mused as he watched Jo work, while the sight of her with a gun was always hot, it was that little look that she had just sent the other him that really got him every time. It meant that he was annoying her but she was trying her best not to let that happen. He'd always considered it a personal sort of triumph if he could break through enough of her walls to let that look slip through.

As he watched, the younger Zane was quietly pacing the cell and trying not to be obvious about how he was watching Jo. "So what exactly do you guys do for fun around here," he asked trying to get her to talk. Jo merely ignored him as she meticulously continued to clean her gun.

The younger Zane smirked as she ignored him, and he leaned against the bars now watching her purposefully, his eyes roving up and down her uniformed curves admiring the view. as he continued to make comments designed to annoy and get a reaction.

Zane saw her hands pause a few times as she cleaned the barrel of the rifle as a comment began to get under her skin, but she still said nothing.

Finally the younger Zane quipped, "Obsession with firearms can be a sign of unfulfilled sexual appetite. Now I'm not saying that's you," he said with a grin, "but if it is I'm at your service."

it seemed to be the breaking point as Jo grimaced, quickly stood raising her gun and pointing it at him as she cocked the barrel just as Carter ran into the room in time to intervene.

Zane snorted as he sat on the edge of Jo's desk, way out of rifle range and grinned. "Poke the dragon," he said with a shake of his head as he too watched her with admiration, "and you get burned."

Carter shook his head at Jo, "Allison wants him alive and at GD."

Jo slowly lowered the weapon and with a short but scathing look at the prisoner, she picked up several silver bracelet cuffs from the edge of her desk and handed two to Carter keeping one for herself.

Zane frowned at the sight of the bracelets and looked over at his younger self. "I hated those damn things. I had to wear one everyday for he first six months. Damn things pinched and banged into everything," he muttered then stopped as he saw Carter hand his younger self the wrong bracelet. "Don't tell me," he said, a grin appearing on his face as he looked back at Jo.

"If he runs just push the button," she told Carter returning her attention to her gun barrel.

Carter looked down at his wrist. "What button?"

In the cell the younger Zane grinned broadly pressing the button on the bracelet on his wrist, causing Carter to squeal like a girl as he was shocked. "I've got a button," his younger self told Carter.

While Jo flipped the switch allowing Carter to take the bracelet off, Zane chuckled. "Damn if that didn't happen just like that," he said with a grin. "Its nice to know that some things are the same," as Carter motioned for his younger self to leave the cell.

As the world began to blur, Zane heard Jo say, "At least you know it works."

The room swung back into focus only he was still in the sheriff's office. Behind him in the cell his younger self had decked out the cell with all the modern trappings of a studio apartment. Zane smiled as Carter raced out of the room muttering for Jo who was just entering the office with her morning coffee to watch him.

Zane smirked as he spotted the remote control on the sheriff's desk. "I guess they hadn't gotten any sort of warning about you...or me...had they?"

The younger Zane offered Jo a quesadilla through the cell bars but she shook her head. "Look you may get to him, but you won't get to me," she told him confidently.

Behind her a delivery man wheeled in several large white boxes and holding his clipboard asked for "Jo Lupo."

Jo turned back to face him, "Yeah?"

"I've got 19 boxes here from Liza's lingerie," and as he looked up and spotting who Jo was, added, "and can I just say, God bless."

Zane's mouth dropped open and he laughed aloud as he spotted the look on Jo's face. Behind him, his younger self drawled. "I had to guess the size so you should probably try everything on." Jo sent him another one of her trademark arch looks and he raised his coffee cup in salute, daring a cheeky grin. "I'll make popcorn."

Zane waited for Jo to send him a zap through the bracelet but it didn't come, and he watched in shock as she merely dealt with the deliveryman. When he was gone she pushed the boxes over to the side of her desk with her boot and didn't give them another glance as the world blurred again.

The room came back into focus again once more to the sheriff's office, but the sight that greeted him was not one that he'd been privileged to see before. Jo was bent over her chair, leaning against her desk as she studied something on her computer. She had arched her back as she posed, in what he could could only describe as a very provocative stance. She chewed on her bottom lip as she read whatever was on her screen and Zane couldn't help but wonder if she was doing it on purpose. If the look on his other self was any indication, it was working. The younger 'other' Zane was all but drooling as he leaned against the bars of the cell, his eyes staring at her appreciatively.

Zane understood the feeling. He could still remember the day that had seen Jo for the first time; she had affected him almost as strongly. He had been stepping out of the in the doorway of the prisoner transport van, and had spotted her from out of the corner of his eye. She had literally stopped him in his tracks. She had been standing in the doorway of the sheriff's building watching as the guards unloaded him. Standing still, her hands were on her hips as though she were waiting for a fight. She was a petite thing, but the fierceness in her eyes had belied that she was not to be messed with. The face was attractive enough, to make him look twice but it was that look in her eyes that had stopped him in his tracks. He'd always been attracted to women who were confident. He never had the patience to deal with anyone who needed to be coddled all the time. Jo's expression had confidence and more etched on her beautiful face. He had stopped long enough that she noticed and raised an eyebrow quizzically at him as though she wondered what he was looking at. The guard behind him wondered the same and gave him a jab in the ribs to keep moving.

The guard who'd been driving also spotted Jo waiting for them and he gave a low whistle of appreciation which had diverted her gaze away from him to the guard. Her eyes narrowed at the sound, and her expression grew frosty, but she remained where she stood, waiting for the men to bring the prisoner to her.

The first guard had held onto his elbow forcing him forward, while the second who had given the whistle merely leered at Jo. "Deputy Lupo," the first guard asked.

Jo nodded.

"Where do you want him," the guard asked. Jo flicked a glance at the second guard and motioned with her hand to follow her, "This way." Zane remembered distinctly hearing the second guard make a not so quiet hum of appreciation when she turned to lead them inside, but it had been hard to fault him. He'd felt like doing the same, but caution had him keeping his normally obnoxious comments to himself.

Jo motioned to the jail cell, and had asked the guards to remove the hand and ankle cuffs that he wore and motioned for Zane to step inside the cell. For a half second she had looked up at him, and their eyes had caught. Brown eyes stared down blue, each willing the other to look away first. It had taken the second guard poking him in the chest with his baton to make him look away, and caused Jo to frown at the guard as she closed the cell doors.

She turned around, hands on her hips and began to lecture the guard about how to treat her prisoner. In hindsight it had been rather humorous at first, this small diminutive woman lecturing this tall beefy guard about the handling of prisoners; she simply had no fear. When the guard had stepped in to crowd her personal space and laid a hand on her shoulder murmuring that he knew the best way to handle people, Jo grabbed a hold of his wrist with one hand and twisted it suddenly so that the guard found himself forced to his knees in pain.

Zane remembered smiling as she dealt with the aggressor so swiftly and then merely turned to the other guard who was standing there in shock , and asked him if they had any paperwork that needed to be signed for the prisoner. They had left in a hurry after that and Jo merely walked back to her desk and sat down as though nothing were amiss. When she caught Zane staring at her, she merely said, "Don't get any ideas."

Zane remembered smiling at her as he informed her that it was too late and that he'd been given plenty already. She had narrowed her eyes at that, and continued to ignore whatever comments that he could make until Carter had come in a few minutes later.

Pulling himself back to the present, he heard his younger self ask Jo if she was wearing one of his presents under her uniform, and he was surprised when though she didn't give him an answer she did give a half smirk.

"Holy crap," he said as he studied her form a little more closely, "were you?"

His younger self persisted, asking, "Come on you can tell me," with a cocky grin.

Jo merely lifted her hand and pressed the shock button on the bracelet causing a quick shock from the bracelet that the other Zane wore.

He heard his younger self give a quick shout and Zane shook his head. "I really hated those things". So he was surprised when he heard himself say to Jo. "Alright I deserved that. This is nice work. How did you get the enough phase power for the field on the biometric lock? A redeux battery?"

"No," Jo said with a quick glance at him. "Its a nano-titanate cell."

"Sweet," Zane heard his younger self say, and he stared at him in confusion. "How do you keep the amp load from shorting out?" the younger man asked Jo.

Zane looked back and forth between the two trying to figure out what confused him more, the fact that he seemed to be appreciative about the technology that was ultimately keeping him here, or the fact that Jo was smiling at his younger self as she proudly told him about the cuffs. It almost seemed like she was...flirting...with him...or the other him.

His younger self asked to see the read-out on the chaotic inflation test, and his own interest perked up. "Wait, they actually built it?" he asked the room aloud.

Jo grabbed a file from the edge of her desk and held it to her chest as she walked over towards the cell bars.

His younger self gestured to the file, "And if I'm helping you, maybe you can return the favor", he told her with a grin.

"And here it comes," Jo said as she waited for the line.

Zane watched his younger self's eyes stare down at Jo. "There's only one thing I want from you Jo-jo," he told her.

Zane watched Jo's eyes narrow and dip down to his lips before she looked back at him again. "I could think of a few things," he murmured to himself, then smiled as he caught the nickname. "I knew you hated that", he murmured.

His younger self waited another beat and then said "-A sandwich."

Zane spotted Jo's mouth quirk into a quick grin as she glanced down at the report in hand while his younger self rambled something about the Geneva convention and their rules about food.

Jo lifted the report and slipped it between the bars of the cell, holding it out to him. "And you'll read this," she asked clarifying. His younger self went to grab it through the bars but she held on, "And help," she continued.

The younger man merely smiled and pulled on the report steadily forcing her to step closer to the cell bars. He smiled at their close proximity and nodded. "Yeah."

She continued to look at him another minute before the memory started to blur and bleed into another scene. This time the when the office door opened Jo and Carter walked in, the doors to the cell were wide open and his younger self was no where to be seen.

Jo's face was stricken as Carter asked aloud how he could have escaped, causing Zane to have a moment of guilt, even though it wasn't really him that had done the escaping. He realized now that his other self had been getting information about how to circumvent the cuffs, allowing him to escape undetected. The Lupo that he knew was much too tight lipped for that kind of trick. He ought to know; he'd spent the better part of two weeks trying to get it out of her.

He heard Jo admit, that by mistake she may have told him how to hack the lock, and the look on her face was part rage, part embarrassment as the world blurred again.

This time when the world came back into focus he was in Cafe Diem, and the atmosphere was rather jovial. He spotted himself sitting at the counter talking to Carter, but noticed that he was neither wearing the bracelet cuff, or handcuffs. His younger self seemed to be having an intense conversation with Carter, but their body language seemed to indicate that things were ok between them both. As he wondered exactly what had changed he noticed his younger self suddenly sit upright on the stool and casually glance towards the cafe door. Zane turned around and spotted Jo talking to a group of young women and Zoe Carter. He walked towards them trying to gauge how mad Jo was and to catch their conversation.

As he got closer he heard Zoe tell Jo that she was being watched. Jo managed a covert glance towards the counter before meeting the young woman's eye. All she managed in reply was a murmuring sound of assent.

Zoe pursed her lips and cast young Zane another glance. "You have to admit, he's hot."

Jo rolled her eyes heavenward but nodded, "Fine, yes he's hot, but he's also a jackass."

"Who is still checking you out," Zoe confirmed with another look back.

Jo just shook her head and crossed her arms across her chest. "He's probably just wondering what color underwear I'm wearing."

Zoe grinned broadly at that, "Hot!" then noticed her friend casually glance at the counter once more. "$5 bucks says he asks you out," she said.

Jo rolled her eyes again, "That's a suckers bet. The real question is would I agree to go?"

Zoe ticked off the reasons on her fingers as she spoke, "Hot guy, interested in you, small town - did I mention he is hot- cause that bears repeating."

Jo smiled at her friends enthusiasm, but shook her head. "I shouldn't even bother."

"Even bad first dates are still dates." Zoe said with the age of wisdom in her voice.

"Spoken like a teenager who hasn't been on many dates," Jo quipped back.

"Hey, sometimes I have to live vicariously through you." But before she could say anything else they spotted the younger Zane turn to say something to Carter and then casually make his way towards Jo. Zoe murmured, "Remember, details!" and then turned to walk away leaving her friend standing alone on the cafe steps.

As his younger self approached Jo with a sheepish expression on his face and his hands in his pockets, Zane tried to judge just exactly when she was going to tazer him.

Jo stood waiting for him, a cool expression on her face.

The younger Zane grinned cheekily at Jo, "So I'm a free man now," he told her.

Jo raised an arched eyebrow at him, "Are you now?" she said coolly and without another word turned on her heels to walk out the door.

Zane stared after her in confusion as she didn't try to exact any sort of revenge on him.

The younger Zane however didn't seem phased and followed her out and down the sidewalk. "Your electro-magentic cuffs were a big hit," he told her. "A life saver."

Jo didn't stop walking, merely said, "Glad I could help," and turned to cross the street.

The younger Zane continued to follow, and blurted out sheepishly, "Look, I'm sorry about before."

Jo did stop walking then and turned to face him, while the real Zane stood just a foot to the side so that he could watch them both. "Which part are you sorry for," she asked the younger Zane. "Breaking out of jail, running away, or sending me the lingerie?"

The younger Zane smiled wryly, unfazed by her cool response. "Yes to the first two, no to the third. Sorry but I can't really apologize for any of Liza's products. The woman does quality work."

Jo raised an eyebrow, accompanied by a stony stare and turned to walk away, but the younger Zane moved to block her path.

"Alright, how about you let me try to make it up to you? Can I buy you dinner later?"

Jo tilted her head and looked up at him an unreadable expression on her face. "Dinner?"

"The younger man smiled confidently, "Yeah, you know, anything but chicken," he told her with a grin."

"You mean like a date," she clarified.

The young man nodded. "Well, yeah."

"I'm on duty tonight," Jo said as she tried to walk around him, but he stepped into her path again.

"You work every day," he asked. "They don't let you off to eat?"

Jo stared at the younger Zane a moment longer, silently considering him. Not for the first time Zane wished that he could hear what her thoughts were at that moment. Finally she broke the silence. "Carter and I rotate Saturday's, this one is mine. The only other day that I have off is Sunday and I go to church in the morning."

The younger Zane nodded, "Well how about after church?" He gestured to a nearby banner out in front of Cafe Diem that proudly announced their Sunday Brunch hours. "I could take you to brunch," he offered.

She cocked her head to the side as she considered him, before finally nodding. "The service is over at 11 am. I'll meet you here afterwards."

The younger Zane smiled, and nodding his head answered, "I'll be here." while the Older Zane looked on in amazement asking, "Really?"

Jo waited a beat, then raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Can I go back to my office now," she asked him gesturing to the blocked path.

The younger Zane grinned and stepped purposefully out of her path. As she walked past him she looked back over her shoulder and up at him, "I need to do some paperwork to order a new lock for our jail cell. I have a feeling," she deadpanned, "that we're going to be needing it a lot."

Zane stood on the sidewalk next to his younger self as they both watched Jo walk away. When she got across the street his younger self turned to walk back to Cafe Diem and didn't see Jo turn back around watching him walk away.

Before Zane could move towards Jo the world blurred and he was inside of Cafe Diem standing amidst a large crowd of people waiting for a table. The door opened with a chime but he was too busy staring at the young man sitting in a nearby table who was nervously adjusting a rose with his hand as he listened to Vincent. He walked towards him, taking note of his sports jacket and recently shaved face. He chuckled at his younger self, saying, "I think you already made a hell of a first impression," but then stopped as he saw the younger man's face light up with a slow smile as he spotted something at the door. Zane turned and simply stared in shock at the vision in the white sundress smiled.

Vincent murmured a no so quiet, "No!" to which his younger self answered, "Yes."

Vincent murmured a little more quietly now, "I'm impressed," as Zane stood up, "Me too," his younger self admitted.

"Me three," Zane murmured staring at Jo with pleasant surprise, as his younger self quipped, "and just a teeny bit scared," and picking up the rose that he brought with him, walked over to greet Jo at the door.

Zane eyes followed Jo as she was escorted to the table and they began talking animatedly. Every few minutes Jo would reach out and smooth the petals of the rose that his other self had brought. She seemed different with her hair down, somehow softer and more approachable. His other self seemed to think so too as they bantered back and forth, each smiling as Vincent took their orders. He caught bits and pieces of their conversation but hecouldn't stop his mind from wandering as he from cataloged the differences between this first date and his own.

It had taken him months to get Jo to agree to go out with him, and brunch had been her idea. He wasn't exactly the brunch kind of guy. He had dressed nicely, well at least his shirt had been clean ...he thought. He had brought her a rose too, mostly because he wanted to see the look of surprise on her face that she'd given him when he made such an unusual gesture. The Jo that he knew had such an attitude about being seen as girlie that he realized that he'd done it partly because he wanted to remind her that he thought of her as a woman. She had accused him often enough of just wanting to get in bed with her, a sentiment that he vocally disagreed with to her face but had to admit that it was partially true. Beyond the fact that he had wanted her, he wondered what he would have done with her once he had gotten her. He wasn't exactly a relationship kind of guy, but as he watched his other self flirt with Jo he wondered how much of that was true. Did he avoid relationships because he really didn't want them, or was he just avoiding them because he thought that the women he was interested in wouldn't want him? It had sure happened that way with the Lupo he had known. She had shown up for the date but they were both so wary of each other that it had been hard to start talking. Once they had gotten over their nerves and loosened up it had gone smoother, but then Mansfield had found a way to ruin it by pointing out his damned record again, and Jo had chosen her career rather than take any sort of risk with him.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed hearing his younger self say, "Yeah but that's simple mechanics. Now Particle and Theoretical Physics, that's the real mind candy."

Even Zane couldn't help but notice that Jo's smile quickly faded as she responded, "Well some of us prefer practical application."

His younger version quickly tried to backtrack, "Oh, yeah...No, that's all good, but admit it, that particle accelerator only gets built if someone comes up with the idea, right?"

Vincent came over to the table to take their drink orders but Zane continued to watch Jo's less than enthusiastic face, with a frown on his own. He remembered vaguely having a similar conversation about science with Jo, but shortly afterwards she had left claiming that she had paperwork to do and had gone outside to speak with Mansfield. He watched with raised eyebrows as this Jo did the same thing.

His younger other self seemed just as confused, but Jo quickly made her excuses and left without a word, and Zane noted, without the rose that he'd brought. He watched her walk out and then quickly moved to follow her out the door. Glancing back over his shoulder he noted that his other self had remained in his seat with a disappointed and confused look on his face. as he picked up her forgotten rose.

As Jo stepped outside she hurriedly put on the sweater that she had brought with her and muttered to herself as she walked down the sidewalk. Zane heard her say, "Stupid" and "Why do I even bother," before her phone interrupted her scattered thoughts. Picking it up she began speaking to Carter. "Hey. Yeah, No you're not interrupting anything actually," with a sad glance back at Cafe Diem, but then frowned at whatever was said on the phone. "She's what? Yeah of course, I'll change and be right over," and as she hung up the memory blurred.

_SOOOO depressed after last nights season finale. 9 whole months of no Eureka? (Christmas is fine but damn it no character development there). On the plus side I have a whole lot more ideas story wise, but on the down I need to eat a lot more chocolate. Sigh if you're with me. _


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 - You don't know Jo

By Pchefbeth

**Ok season finale...I may be depressed but you will not defeat me. I will wrap myself in the comfort of my story and wait (NOT) so patiently for Season five where you had better answer my many many story plot line questions! Enjoy my anger gentle readers, cause its taking its outlet in writing! I don't own Eureka...but you can't prove that, not really. Disclaimer, disclaimer, yada yada. **

_Vincent came over to the table to take other Zane and Jo's drink order but Zane continued to watch Jo's less than enthusiastic face, with a frown on his own. He remembered vaguely having a similar conversation about science with Jo on their date, but shortly afterwards she had left claiming that she had paperwork to do and had gone outside to speak with Mansfield. He watched with raised eyebrows as this Jo did the same thing._

_His younger other self seemed just as confused, but Jo quickly made her excuses and left without a word, and Zane noted, without the rose that his other self had brought. He watched her walk out and then quickly moved to follow her out the door. Glancing back over his shoulder he noted that his other self had remained in his seat with a disappointed and confused look on his face as he picked up her forgotten rose._

_As Jo stepped outside she hurriedly put on the sweater that she had brought with her and muttered to herself as she walked down the sidewalk. Zane heard her say, "Stupid" and "Why do I even bother," before her phone interrupted her scattered thoughts. Picking it up she began speaking to Carter. "Hey. Yeah, No you're not interrupting anything actually," with a sad glance back at Cafe Diem, but then frowned at whatever was said on the phone. "She's what? Yeah of course, I'll change and be right over," and as she hung up the memory blurred._

Claudia woke with a start, unsure of where she was. The unfamiliar white walls didn't spark any memory at first and as she went to move she realized that Fargo was lying on her shoulder fast asleep. "What..?" she murmured, but then jumped as her unasked question was answered by a computerized voice. "Good Morning Ms. Donovan," SARAH said loudly, startling Fargo awake as they all but smacked heads together.

"Shhh!" Fargo whispered to SARAH, "not so loud," he said as he reached blindly for his glasses, fumbling to put them on, "you'll wake up," but then stopped abruptly as he realized that Carter and Pete were both awake and leaning against the hallway wall watching them both.

"Uh-huh," Carter said as he sipped his morning coffee.

Claudia blushed, as Fargo said, "Nothing happened."

Carter merely turned to give Pete a look. Pete shook his head as he turned to go back into the kitchen muttering, "I so do _not _want to know."

Fargo turned back to Claudia saying, "Nothing happened... right?"

Before Claudia could do more than shrug S.A.R.A.H announced "It was hardly an evening filled with nothing Dr. Fargo," and then she began to project video images of all the activity in the living room that had occurred the previous night for them to view at super fast speeds. "Ms. Donovan beat you in 8 out of the 10 HALO simulations that you ran, however there are indications that Ms. Donovan may have let you win the last match Dr. Fargo. There were five bathroom breaks, which incidentally Dr. Fargo you should probably discuss your frequent urination's with your Doctor at your next routine physical," SARAH said. She then began to show video of them both falling asleep and eventually moving closer together to cuddle as they slept into the night. Claudia it seemed didn't move while she slept, but Fargo thrashed around on the couch in fast forward as he appeared to try to get comfortable, "and although hormone levels indicated a willingness on both parties," SARAH concluded, "there was no consummation of the was however some snoring by you Dr. Fargo and some light drooling by Ms. Donovan."

Fargo merely closed his eyes tightly as if in pain, while Claudia opened and closed her mouth several times apparently at a loss for words. "Ummm, thanks SARAH," she said finally and began to walk towards the kitchen. As Fargo followed she whispered to him, "Maybe the Smart house wasn't the best invention after all."

As they joined Pete and Carter in the kitchen Pete's farnsworth began to chime. Opening it he spotted Artie's tired face looking back at him. "Artie," Pete asked as he picked up a cookie from the pantry doors that SARAH slid open. "Do we have any leads"?

"The woman who's been affected, did she ever serve in the military," Artie asked without preamble. Pete turned the tiny screen so that Carter could peer in on the conversation.

"Yes, yes she was, does that have something to do with it?" Carter answered.

Pete's farnsworth suddenly went blank and the screen in the kitchen suddenly lit up with Artie's face. Artie moved his head closer to the screen as the image suddenly changed in his own farnsworth. "Did you all just shrink," he asked as the group turned startled heads towards the large screen.

"SARAH?" Carter asked.

"Yes Sheriff Carter," SARAH's voice explained. "I thought that it would be beneficial for everyone to see Special Agent Nielsen, so I am using my internal satellite array to bounce the signal from Agent Latimer's farnsworth device onto the screen. Incidentally Dr. Nielsen, I would be happy to make a few recommendations in order to provide you with a better screen for your farnsworth device."

Claudia leaned back over to Fargo whispering, "I take it all back...love the Smart house."

Artie cleared his throat loudly to get their attention back.

"Ok Artie, what does the military have to do with our artifact?" Claudia asked confused.

Artie began pulling out papers form his files reading as he went. "If I'm right then we're dealing with the purple heart that belonged to Ernie Pyle." Fargo and Carter shared equally blank looks.

"He was a war correspondent in World War 1 and 2." As Artie began to talk SARAH suddenly began to fill the screen with historical photos and copies of newspaper clippings that listed Ernie Pyle as the author. "He was known for writing stories about men on the front lines . He was a very gifted author and spent a great deal of time writing articles about the man behind the soldier, letting people know what it was like on the battlefield for the men who were fighting. He was very well respected and known among the military. He would entrench himself with the men in the armed forces and write about their living conditions and how the war was really going."

"Wait, if this guy was essentially a member of the press then how did he get a Purple Heart," Carter asked confused.

"He was killed in action while stationed with a marine battalion on Iwo Jima. They brought him into what they thought was a safe zone and he and several of the men that he was with were killed by a sniper. He was actually one of the few civilians to be awarded a purple heart during World War II. It was originally thought to have been buried with him when his body was moved to Oahu but it was later discovered that his widow had given it to a friend who he had served with. That man died under suspicious circumstances less than a year later."

"What happened," Pete asked.

"While he was out farming on a clear day in Nebraska he was killed by shrapnel from a roadside bomb, only there was no bomb. His injuries match those that he sustained during the war, and his sons admitted that he'd been hallucinating in recent days, reliving points in his life."

"That sounds eerily familiar," Claudia murmured.

"So this artifact its more than just our standard bag and tag," Pete clarified, "its got a kill zone?"

"One confirmed, possibly a second, the reports are inconclusive. Its been missing for more than 30 years so it had to have been in someone's possession, most likely its been dormant because that person didn't have a military background." Artie said. "Based on what you're telling me the artifact is forcing your friend to relive some memories of her life. I believe that the artifact is actually trying to tell the story of her life. Tell me sheriff, was she ever awarded a purple heart for wounds sustained in battle?"

Carter nodded. "Yes, she doesn't talk about it but she was shot in her upper arm," he said as he pointed to just below his shoulder.

"Was it life threatening?"

Carter shook his head, "I don't think so."

"Then we may be in luck. I believe that tn order to be triggered the artifact needs a member of the military and who has received a purple heart. If her injuries weren't life threatening then its possible that the artifact will only provide us glimpses into her life and when it reaches the present day it could simply deactivate itself."

"Yeah, when does it ever happen that easily," Claudia asked sarcastically.

Carter looked speculatively at the image of Artie on the screen. "What about injuries that she's had happen _after_ her military career?"

Artie lowered his files and turned back to the screen. "Were they life threatening?"

"They had to crack open her chest to extract a 50 caliber bullet."

"A 50 cal'? What the hell was shooting at her?" Pete asked incredulously.

Artie ignored him as he frowned looking back over his notes. "How long ago was this," he asked.

"Oh, Oh! I was here when it happened," Claudia said. "I remember that. Maybe 4 or 5 months ago," she estimated.

"That's not good. We need to get an idea of how far and how fast her memories are progressing and to see if we can find a way to slow them while we find a way to separate her from the artifact"

"Artie," Pete broke in, "the artifact is trying to tell a story, so what if there was no one to tell it to? No readers, no writer?"

"Would anyone at the infirmary have hooked up to the system to view her memories after we left," Claudia asked.

Carter shook his head. "I don't think that Henry or Grace would have, but I'm not sure. But either way, we need to get up there right away and he started to walk towards the front door. SARAH," he called out, "make sure that you tell Zoe where we've gone when she wakes up."

"Zoe isn't here," SARAH informed him.

Carter stopped and turned to look back up at the ceiling, "Where is she?"

"She is on her way up to the GD infirmary, "SARAH explained. "She was trying to reach Mr. Donovan this morning but he didn't answer. She was worried so she had me locate him."

Carter groaned, "SARAH you know that you're not supposed to do that."

"I discovered that Mr. Donovan has been at GD in the infirmary all evening. She left to go there about 10 minutes before you woke up."

"Zane's been in the infirmary all night long," Fargo mused. "That's wierd."

"SARAH, are Henry and Grace still in the infirmary?" but SARAH didn't answer him. "SARAH," he asked again.

"I'm sorry," she said in her robotic snide tone, "I thought that you didn't like it when I did that."

"SARAH please," Carter begged.

"Dr. Deacon and Dr. Monroe have not been in the infirmary all evening," she answered which caused Carter to race towards the front door.

"What's wrong," Pete asked as he grabbed his jacket and began to follow Claudia and Fargo close behind.

"What's wrong is that Zane's been alone all night with Jo, with unlimited access to her memories, only he doesn't know that one of them could kill her," Carter pointed out. "We need to get to him fast before her memories progress to Jo's memory of the bullet."

"What's going to happen if she does remember before we can get that artifact off of her," Fargo asked as they ran up the stairs.

Claudia grimaced, "Remember what happened yesterday? The doctors won't be able to touch her much less operate on her."

Fargo visibly paled at the thought.

As they crammed into the car Carter flipped on the lights and siren. "Fargo, get Henry and Grace on the phone. We need to get someone up there fast!"

* * *

When the world reappeared Zane realized that they were back in GD's infirmary, but a quick glance at the patient in the nearby bed confirmed that this wasn't the real infirmary, but instead another memory. Allison Blake lay on one of the beds, her eyes closed as she...glowed, quite literally. Jo paused for a moment at the foot of the bed, but left the woman sleeping and walked towards another bed at the end of the row. As Zane followed he caught sight of a familiar blond haired girl sitting upright and staring forlornly at the computer pad in her hands.

Jo stood at the foot of the young girls bed and spoke softly to her. "Hey! Sorry that I couldn't be here sooner. You ok?"

Instead of responding Zoe merely gave a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up.

"Well we're still going over the Smart house and Fargo is running a full diagnostic on SARAH, so don't worry. We'll find something soon."

Zoe immediately began to scribble something down on her computer pad, rather than answer again.

Zane looked at the younger Carter, frowning. He'd never known her to be this quiet. "What 's wrong with the Smart house?"

Zoe finished her writing and pressed a button and a computerized voice filled the air. "_How did it go with Zane?_"

Jo's face fell but she tried to rally and pasted a fake smile on her face. "We can...talk about that later," she told Zoe.

"You mean you don't want to talk about why you suddenly ditched me," Zane asked aloud.

Zoe quickly typed back. "_Or now_," the computerized voice stated.

Jo nodded, as if unsurprised by this reaction, and pulled a nearby chair over to the bedside.

Zane grinned at Zoe as he moved to the opposite side of the bed so that he could see Jo's face.

"I knew I liked you," he said the to young woman.

Jo bit her bottom lip before beginning, then with a soft sigh looked up. "Bottom line, she asked Zoe.

Zoe nodded and smiled, enthusiastic about the details.

He's...brilliant," Jo said with a half smile.

Zane grinned at the compliment.

"I'm not," she told Zoe reluctantly, causing both Zane's and Zoe's grins to fade. "Its the story of my life...trying to get a date in this town," Jo said, sadness heard in her voice.

"What are you talking about," Zane asked incredulously as he began to pace from side to side as Zoe began to write frantically on her tablet. "Who ever said that you weren't smart?"

Zoe pressed play on her tablet, "_He likes you_."

Jo nodded reluctantly, "But how long before he realizes that I can't keep up with him?"

Zane walked around the bed until he stood next to Jo, and squatting down next to her, watched her face as she told Zoe that she was more concerned about her. "I did...I mean I do like you," he said softly to her. "You just never stuck around long enough to see who would have kept up with whom," and around him the world softly faded and blurred.

When the world refocused they were back in the sheriff's office once again. Jo sat at her desk on the phone as she answered call after call, while Zane had reappeared next to Carter's desk. As he listened he realized that they were having an a-typical Eureka problem filled day. She actually looked a little worried as she told the caller that they were getting reports from all over town. Then winced as the caller once again spoke. "I promise he'll get to you as soon as he can."

Jo hung up the phone and recorded the call in her log, as Zane saw from the corner of his eye that they weren't alone. His younger self had come in at some point and watched Jo from his position at the door. He gave the impression of being relaxed, but Zane knew the signs. that were indicating otherwise. He was clenching his jaw muscles ever few seconds, as though he were fighting with the words that he wanted to say. Zane walked over closer to him, and stood a few feet away watching him closely, wondering just what his younger self was doing here.

As Jo added to her files the other Zane called out to her, a wry smile pasted on his face., "You should really wear your hair down more often."

Jo looked up, "Zane," surprise and caution in her voice. She looked down briefly at the growing pile of reports on her desk, "Its really not a good time," she told him.

Zane saw the tell-tale tightening of his jaw again, before his other self answered, "Yeah, I kinda got that when you took off," he said unable to keep the hint of annoyance out of his voice as he approached her desk.

Jo frowned at the direct confrontation and then tried to school her features. "Look, its nothing." and stood to put her files away.

"Well I think it is, so either to tell me why you're pissed at me or...I'll hold my breath until you do."

Zane turned to his other self. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Jo tuned back to him, her voice annoyed, "What are you three?"

The other Zane merely shrugged and said, "Hey if black out its on you," he said confidently and then inhaling loudly he puffed up his cheeks and held his breath.

Jo leaned a hip against her desk and watched him eyebrow raised, her pose indicating that she wasn't going to stop him.

Zane watched his other self, who merely shrugged at the lack of response and continued to hold his breath. "If you're hoping that she'd going to resuscitate you with CPR, then I think that you'd better rethink your plan."

Jo however let out a breathe and gave in, "Ok, look, you didn't do anything, "she said abruptly.

Other Zane listened but didn't exhale yet.

"Its me," she said, her eyes on the floor. Then with a small shrug she said sheepishly, "Its this whole town."

Zane finally let out the breath that he'd been holding as he rushed to ask, "Is this about the whole miracles thing, cause honestly there's no such thing."

Jo immediately went from being embarrassed to annoyed, "Right," she said, "because only dumb people believe in something beyond Tachyons and particle accelerators."

Other Zane didn't get a chance to answer as they were interrupted by Carter calling out Jo's name as they ran into the room. Zane listened for a moment as they discussed the theory behind the recent events, but he soon lost interest, returning his attention to Jo. "So let me get this straight," he said as he walked closer to her, "You didn't want to date me because you thought that I'd believe that once I got to know you that you were dumb. Seriously, who put these ideas into your head?" He turned away for a moment, then turned back, not finished.

"You are smart. Then scoffed, "Hell if anything I should have been the one that was intimidated," he said as he flicked a hand towards his other self. "Look at me. You know exactly where you're going, and what you wanted," he told Jo. "I, well other me... hell, we both got where we are because we didn't always go after what we wanted. Hell most of the time I ended up where I was because other people wanted me there. You got here because you were the best in your field," he told her, wishing as he broke off that she could hear him. "Now you're stuck somewhere reliving this crap and I don't even know if you can hear me." He stared at her another moment. "Come on Jo, can you hear me at all in there?"

Suddenly and without warning the lights in the office went out. Everyone including Zane looked startled, as Carter said frustration in his voice. "You just had to say it, didn't you," as the memory grew darker and blurred.

Just as suddenly as the lights went out, they were suddenly back on, accompanied by a sudden blast of music. Startled Zane whirled and found that he was in a church. It took him a moment to realize that they were still in Eureka as he recognized a few of the faces. He walked past Sheriff Carter and Zoe, who he could hear singing along with the rest of the parishioner's. He glanced up at the reverend who was leading them in song and wondered just what had happened this week that had brought this many scientists into church. As he turned back he did a double take as he caught sight of Jo. Gone was her usual ponytail as her hair was curled and fell softly past her shoulders. She wore another dress, this one a short purple dress with frills that showed off quite a few of her curves. His gaze raked over her slender form, admiring how good she looked. It wasn't often that he ever got to see her like this. As he moved closer he could hear her singing with the rest of the congregation. He took note of the empty space beside her, and guessed that she was by herself. "I guess the only way that I'm going to end up in a church is if its in someone else's memory, huh."

The mass ended and people began to slowly file out of church, stopping along the way and greeting those that they knew. Jo was held up a few times as people stopped her to say hello, or to thank her for helping them in the past few days. Zane looked around at the people, wondering what it was that the memory was about. Every other memory so far had brought to life another detail, another piece of who she was. He stared back at the cross at the front of the church. This wasn't a piece that he had known about Jo. Not really. She had never mentioned it in his own timeline, and he wondered if this was a part of the difference between the Lupo that he knew and the one before him. Not for the first time he wondered bleakly at their differences. Religion just wasn't something that he was comfortable with, and it was obviously something big to her. He frowned as he wondered if two people who were so different ever stood a chance of getting together.

He followed her outside, a little more slowly, his mind still trying to process all that he'd seen so far when he spotted Jo quickly pull out her pda and check it. Her shoulders slumped slightly in disappointment as she tucked it back in her palm. He was then even more surprised when he heard his own voice calling out Jo's name.

Jo turned at the sound, a surprised smile growing on her face as she realized who it was.

His other self watched her for a moment before he asked, "Are you really going to make me beg?"

Zane stared at his other self as Jo approached him cautiously. "I wonder if you would have," he said slowly.

"You're here," Jo said in surprise.

Other Zane shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah well I had to see if you were lying about all the babes that went to church."

Jo's smile faltered for a moment, causing Zane to smack the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Smooth move dumb ass," he muttered.

But other Zane quickly redeemed himself as he told Jo, "and you definitely were not," he said as he made it apparent just which 'babe' he was referring to.

Jo smiled shyly as other Zane gestured that they walk. Zane followed behind, listening to their conversation surprised at the quick change of events.

"Chivalry," she said to him, trying to recover her wits, "still throws me when I get it from you."

Other Zane smirked, "Well, what can I say. My mom taught me well. Always open doors, say please and thank you, apologize when you've been acting like an ass, you know, the usual stuff."

Jo grinned as they walked down the sidewalk. "Uh-huh. Do you have to do that often?"

"What the opening doors part? Well only if the girl is really pretty," he told her, then shrugged again, "The apologizing for being an ass part, I get more practice at that."

"Oh," Jo said blandly, but paused as other Zane put a hand on her arm to stop her from walking.

"Look, apparently I said something at brunch last week; I'm still not entirely sure what it was that I said, but I wanted to apologize if it upset you." he said sincerely.

Jo gazed up at him, her brown eyes watching him closely.

He grinned briefly, "I'd still like to know what it is, and why it pissed you off so much, but I'd really like a do over on the date," he finished, his face hopeful.

Jo smiled cautiously up at him. "Are you hungry," she asked? "I hear Cafe Diem has a great brunch special today."

Zane smile grew bigger. "I'd like that, but first I just need to get this out of the way." He reached out and cupping her face in his hand he leaned in and brushed his lips slowly over Jo's. He pulled back a few inches and waited until her eyes flickered open, and smiled as his eyes searched her face. "Sorry, but I've been wanting to do that for more than a week," he admitted as he dropped his hand.

The corner of Jo's mouth turned up in a smile as she pulled back and continued to move down the sidewalk. "That's funny, I've been wanting you do do that for a lot longer than a week," she said playfully over her shoulder at him.

Other Zane looked shocked for a moment and then with a huge grin followed after her.

Zane murmured to himself as he watched his other self and Jo walk towards Main street . "He never gave up, did he. That was the secret. You were scared that he would lose interest in you, but you decided to give it a chance because he didn't stop pursuing you." His mind even more full than it was before Zane followed after them as the world blurred.

**Ok, so, now you know about the color purple. I'm waiting for the questions about why she wasn't wearing anything purple in the last chapter. A good writer always has a prepared answer, and that is...she was wearing the purple lingerie! Well at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. There is actually an Ernie Pyle and more can be found about him on his Wikipedia page. I've read a few of his articles about the war and they were very moving. **

**Stick around, cause there's a lot more left to be answered. How are they going to get the artifact off of her, who gave it to her in the first place and why, and don't forget, our favorite female carter is currently on her way to the GD infirmary to see Zane. Could it be that she's going to find out whats going on?**

**Lot's more memories ahead, Stay tuned!**


	15. Chapter 15

You don't know Jo- Chapter 15

by PchefBeth

**Look out SYFY, I have other stories that I want to put pen to paper with in order to fix your season finale, but not before I finish this. Jo doesn't deserve to be left hanging. Writing this chapter has been hard. I keep wanting to steer Jo and Zane into a particular direction and they are resisting me...but I will not be deterred. I have an ending to this story by god and I'm going to get there.**

**Thanks for all the reads folks. You keep reading, I'll keep writing!**

_Jo smiled cautiously up at him. "Are you hungry," she asked? "I hear Cafe Diem has a great brunch special today."_

_Zane smile grew bigger. "I'd like that, but first I just need to get this out of the way." He reached out and cupping her face in his hand he leaned in and brushed his lips slowly over Jo's. He pulled back a few inches and waited until her eyes flickered open, and smiled as his eyes searched her face. "Sorry, but I've been wanting to do that for more than a week," he admitted as he dropped his hand._

_The corner of Jo's mouth turned up in a smile as she pulled back and continued to move down the sidewalk. "That's funny, I've been wanting you to do that for a lot longer than a week," she said playfully over her shoulder at him._

_Other Zane looked shocked for a moment and then with a huge grin followed after her._

_Zane murmured to himself as he watched his other self and Jo walk towards Main street . "He never gave up, did he. That was the secret. You were scared that he would lose interest in you, but you decided to give it a chance because he didn't stop pursuing you." His mind even more full than it was before, Zane followed after them as the world blurred._

When the world came back into focus Zane realized that they were in the Sheriff Carter's Smart House, in what he could only describe as a swirling vortex of teenagers. They were everywhere; dancing in small clusters, lounging against the hall way walls, or sitting in the living room. A small group of young giggling girls walked past, and he turned and saw that they were each daring quick, but hopeful glances at his other self who stood at the foot of the stairs looking extremely out of place amongst the crowd; and from the look on his face, he was feeling extremely out of place as well.

Jo emerged from the kitchen, dressed so uncharacteristically that Zane let out a small whistle before he could stop himself. She wore jeans, that alone was a surprise, but they were form fitting jeans that managed to show off lots of curve, paired with a colorful purple t-shirt that made it obvious just how different she was from the young girls around them. She'd left her hair loose again, and he was struck by just how relaxed she looked. She carried a large tray filled with drinks, and the other Zane pushed off away from the wall and walked towards her, attempting to take it from her hands, but she shook her head and nodded towards another young woman who ran forward.

"Here you go Zoe," Jo said handing over the tray of drinks.

Zoe grimaced. "I can't thank you enough for doing this Jo," she said with a quick glance in Zane's direction. "I know that you had better things to do tonight. I still can't believe that my dad doesn't think that SARAH is enough of a chaperone. I mean she wouldn't let us drink or do anything stupid."

Jo nodded, "Yes, but unlike SARAH I can and will taze anyone who gets out of order," but she quickly backtracked at the look of horror on Zoe's face, "although I promise not to. Look, your dad just appreciates a human touch," she said as she laid a reassuring hand on the girls arm.

Zoe nodded and walked off towards her friends who quickly swarmed the drink tray.

Zane continued to watch Jo, eyeing her appreciatively as the other Zane stepped closer to Jo, whispering in her ear. "I still can't believe that you convinced me to chaperone a teenage party," he said with just a touch of exasperated mirth.

"Hey no one threatened to snap your fingers off," Jo said annoyed, but other Zane just smiled.

"The ease with which you say that is almost as scary as it is hot." She turned back to make another comment, but he interrupted. "Ok, I know; its just weird. I haven't been to a party like this in a while and I'm just feeling a little out of my element," he said as another group of giggling girls walked past whispering to each other.

Jo spotted them, and muttered, "Tell me about it."

"So deputy, what exactly is our mission here?"

"Keep the peace, keep the locals fed and watered, make sure that they don't engage in any lewd or deviant behavior, and if at all possible prevent them from breaking anything."

The other Zane glanced back over his shoulder at the hallway, "Well see, I had this thought. We should probably keep an eye on the closets."

Jo turned to look back at him, "Closets?"

"Yeah. A party like this, it would be really easy for a young couple looking to find some alone to time to step into one of the closets."

"I'd never thought about that," she said as she looked around the room towards each of the three closets on the downstairs floor.

"Didn't any of the young upstanding guys that you grew up with ever try to convince you to duck inside one of the closets at a party and make out?" he asked.

Jo shook her head. " I moved around a lot growing up, and growing up with three brothers I didn't exactly get to attend many parties like this one. Besides any guy that I was interested in was often too scared of me to try anything." She was too busy scanning the crowd and so she missed the look of surprise he sent her way as he gave her a quick once over obviously appreciating what he saw.

Zane watched as his other self's eyes darted back to the closet down the hallway behind them, and he managed a grin as he realized the thought that was forming in his other self's eyes. He had to agree that the idea had merit, but didn't believe that even he could pull it off.

The other Zane took Jo's hand and pulled her back towards the closet his eyes glancing back to make sure that no one was paying attention.

"What," she asked him.

"I think that we'd better check to make sure that no one ducked in here while we weren't looking," he told her.

She looked over her shoulder at the closed doors. "Do you really think any of Zoe's friends would do that in the 'sheriff's' house," she asked him incredulously.

"Maybe not, but you can never be too careful, right," the other Zane said as he tried to appear serious.

Jo turned back to look at the other party-goers and as her attention shifted he opened the closet doors and pulled her in with him. Zane moved quickly to follow them inside as the doors slid closed.

He immediately walked her backwards pressing her back against the closet wall as he bent his head down to kiss her. "I told you," he said as he broke away from kissing her mouth. "Any guy at a party like this would be looking for any excuse to get the prettiest girl in the closet with him."

Zane grinned in spite of himself, "She is so going to taze your ass."

"Zane," she protested weakly. "We're supposed to be watching them."

"Think of it this way," the other Zane murmured against her lips as his hands trailed down her back dipping dangerously low to pull her tightly against him, "if we're in here, no one else will be."

Zane's smile faded as he realized that it didn't take much convincing, and as he watched the two became blind and deaf to the noises from the party. His eyes popped open wide in surprise as he saw his other self not so subtly brushed a hand over her breast, but instead of delivering the punch that he was expecting, she merely grinned and bit his other self's bottom lip in retaliation.

There was a sudden sharp knock at the door and then the closet light suddenly went on illuminating Sheriff Carter at the entrance to the closet, a stunned expression on his face as he found the two people that he has least expected making out inside.

"What are you...," he asked perplexed. "You're supposed to be watching them," he finished in confusion.

"Well I was watching her," the other Zane said glibly, as Jo covered her kiss swollen lips with her hand, "and she was watching me."

Carter gave them both a look and they beat a hasty retreat back into the main living room.

Jo shot the other Zane a look, but he just grinned. "The risk of getting caught is half the fun," he told her as her eyes narrowed.

She turned to look up at him, their faces only inches apart and Zane watched a myriad of expressions flash across his other self's face- satisfaction, excitement, but there was something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on that he saw there. As Jo turned to answer a question from one of the party go-ers, he watched himself smile down at the top of Jo's head and it hit him; he had been happy. "Well," he mused, "why wouldn't you be. A place where you can do what you love, a pretty girl to spend time with. You're a lucky son of a …," then his brow wrinkled as he realized just how jealous he sounded. Was it even possible to be jealous of an alternate version of yourself, he wondered. But the world didn't give him an answer, it just faded into a blur.

The world refocused and he was back in the sheriff's office. He smirked as he recognized it, wondering which version of himself had spent more time in the sheriff's office- the one in the cell, or outside of it. He turned and caught sight of Jo as she leaned over her desk. As he watched her he admitted that he would have been more willing to be there, in the cell or out of it, if she had dressed like she was. She was dressed casually again with jeans and a blue shirt, but it was more of how relaxed she looked rather than the clothes that she wore that he noticed. She seemed wholly approachable, and as he stood staring at her he wondered why she never dressed like this anymore. It was a sight that he could certainly get used to.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, and he watched his other self come into the room and stop just inside the door taking in the sight of Jo. The other Zane made a noise, and murmured to himself, "Whoa mama," as he sauntered further into the room.

Jo looked up from what she was doing, "You gotta problem," she asked him, a smile on her face.

The other Zane nodded, "Yeah, weak knees. You look...," then faltered for words as he gestured absently with his hands.

Jo rounded the desk, walking towards him, "Good," she offered.

The other Zane shook his head, "Uh-uh. Great."

Jo smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but Sheriff Carter walked in the office and they broke apart as the other Zane muttered a hello to Carter.

"What? So now you mind an audience?" Zane asked incredulous as the other Zane ducked his head instead of following through on the kiss.

"What's up," Jo asked as Carter grumbled a reply.

"Oh its Zoe. She wants to have a boy girl sleep over," he said incredulously.

Jo shared a look with the other Zane and smiled, "Like the one you're having?"

"Really," Carter asked, "my 16 year old daughter?"

"Honestly Carter there's nothing wrong with a little adult recreation," the other Zane offered.

"I mean does she think that I don't remember what its like," Carter asked, oblivious to the glances that Jo and the other Zane kept sending each other. "Hormones are raging- " but then Zane lost track of what Carter was saying as he caught and recognized the looks. "Holy crap," he said as Jo bit her lip and smiled at the heated look that the other Zane sent her way.

Jo interrupted Carter and sent the other Zane a significant look, "We have to go," she said as she grabbed his hand they moved quickly towards the door, stopping only at the entrance so that Jo could turn back and tell Carter that a file that he had requested had been delivered.

Zane could only stare as Jo turned and gave a smile at the other Zane and told Carter that she'd see him later.

The other Zane muttered to Carter as Jo pulled him from the room, "Not if I can help it," and the room blurred pulling Zane with it.

When he re-emerged he did a double take, as he recognized his own apartment. He did a slow turn as he spotted some of his possessions, and moved closer to see a poster on the wall that he didn't recognize. Flickering lights and a low noise caught his attention and he moved further into the living room, still amazed at the sameness of his apartment. As he came around the corner he saw that the TV was on, and it was casting shadows on the wall. An open and half eaten pizza lay in an open box, forgotten on the coffee table as images from a movie that he recognized flashed upon the TV screen. Movement to his right quickly caught and held his rapt attention as he spotted his other self and Jo; but their attention wasn't on the movie. They lay on the couch, limbs and lips entwined, once again oblivious to anything else around them, not hearing the violence of gunfire that erupted from the television screen. Zane glanced away for a moment, embarrassed to be witnessing such a private moment but after hearing the breathy sounds that were coming from behind him he slowly looked back, convincing himself that technically it was his memory even if he could no longer remember all of the details.

His other self pulled back, lifting himself up on his forearms above Jo as he tried to catch his breath. Not liking the fact that he stopped Jo gave a small noise and ran her hands over his back and shoulders urging him back down to her. He merely stared down at her, smoothing back the strands of hair that had fallen across her face. "God you're beautiful," Zane heard his other self murmur.

Jo smiled up at him, running her fingers through the dark locks of hair at the back of his neck as she sat up, pushing him back on his heels. "Really", she asked casually, and then swung her legs off the couch, stood up and moved across the room. "Its getting pretty late," she said as she stood, I should probably think about heading home." She passed by close enough to where Zane stood as she turned to look back at the man laying on the couch and sent him a grin as she pulled her shirt up over her head and casually dropped it on the floor in the room. "Or you could set the alarm," she said with a flirtatious grin as she turned to walk down the hallway towards the bedroom.

The other Zane recovered quickly and in a flash he was off the couch and all but chasing Jo down the hallway picking her up bodily as she let out a giggling shriek as they quickly moved into the bedroom, leaving Zane standing shocked and frozen in place staring down the hallway, struck dumb by the vision of Jo Lupo in a purple bra striding purposefully towards his bedroom.

There was a loud bump, followed by a laugh and a crash that was heard through the open bedroom door, and Zane walked down the hallway towards it. An unrecognizable piece of clothing went flying through the air and then another loud bump was heard followed by a muttered oath and another laugh which quickly broke off into a moan.

As he stood at the open doorway he stopped in his tracks and questioned himself. "If she finds out that you have seen this she will kill you," he muttered and he turned away from the door. He made it only two steps before he heard Jo say his name aloud on a breathy moan which froze him in his tracks. He listened for another moment unsure then he turned around and strode towards the bedroom door as purposefully as he had seen her move just moments before. If she was going to kill him, then so be it. As he paused in the doorway he gave a half smile and said aloud, "but what a way to go." As he stepped into the room he instinctively ducked as a shoe went flying through the air, narrowly missing where his head would have been and hit the stereo that he had on his dresser. It was a lucky shot because it hit the power button and the playlist that Zane had on his ipod began to play.

Zane blinked as he recognized the song from Lupo's own ipod. He'd found it once at the gym and had listened to it before returning it to her, curious about what little he knew about the enforcer. She had a playlist entitled "Our song" on it and he remembered wondering just who it was that had made up the 'our'. A quiet laugh followed by unrecognizable murmuring came from the room as the Kings of Leon sang 'Use Somebody'.

As he turned to look at the occupants on the bed he felt a tugging sensation on his arm and heard his name said aloud, but it wasn't coming from inside the room. It sounded as though it were coming from far away. The world began to spin making him feel extremely dizzy; the sensation feeling different than it had when the memories were shifting from one to another.

He heard Jo murmur his name again on a breathy moan and he tried to step towards her but his vision was suddenly flooded with bright light as he heard his name spoken again. As he blinked rapidly his vision cleared and he found himself suddenly staring at the concerned face of Zoe Carter.

**Ok, Side note, these scenes may or may not be out of order, but considering that one of them was a deleted scene I think that means that I can put it where I want it. ;) I hope you enjoyed. Yes for those who are going to ask I did reference a prior fanfic that I did entitled "Our Song". I know, I know, shameless self promoting but I'll bet you go read that one now ;) More posted as soon as I can. Sorry but writing dialogue for Zoe has always been so difficult. He's hoping that they all cooperate and let me get these next chapters out. **


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 - You Don't Know Jo**

**by Pchefbeth**

**Did you like that cliffhanger? Well I had to make sure that you were still paying attention ;)**

Zane blinked again to clear his vision but when he opened his eyes again Zoe was still standing there staring at him as though he'd lost his mind. Darting quick glances at the room around him he wondered briefly if he had. His eyes confirmed that he was indeed back in the infirmary, and the sensation of the tablet gripped tightly in his fist proved it. He glanced at the bed again just to be sure that the infirmary wasn't getting a sneak peek into Jo's current memory, but she was still fully clothed and still unconscious. Remembering suddenly that he had an audience he looked away quickly, but based on the assessing look that Zoe gave him and then Jo it hadn't been quick enough.

"What are you doing here," Zoe asked again turning her attention back to Zane.

Zane rubbed his hand over his face pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so. In the memory he hadn't felt tired but now that he was disconnected from the device he felt drained. His mind whirled as he tried to think of a plausible reason for his presence. If Zoe found out about the other timeline it could put her in danger of being sanctioned along with the rest of them. Finally Zane settled on a close approximation of the truth. "I couldn't sleep last night," he said with what he hoped was a casual shrug, " so I came back here to work in the lab and I ran into Grace. She and Henry were beat and so I said that I would sit with J...er, Lupo for a while."

Zoe caught the slip of Jo's name but tried to pretend that she hadn't. "You've been here all night?"

Zane glanced at the clock on the infirmary wall and swore to himself. It was almost seven in the morning. He'd been watching Jo's memories for 7 hours, but it had only seemed like a very short time. Frowning down at the tablet in his hands he said quietly, "I guess I just lost track of the time."

Zoe followed his gaze and frowned, "What were you doing? I said your name like a half dozen times but you didn't answer. It was like you couldn't hear me."

Zane almost frowned as he realized how unaware of the outside world he had been, but he decided to hide it as he continued his half truths. "Grace and Henry found a way for us to keep tabs on her memories and they asked me if I would look for the artifact while I was here."

"You should have called me if you couldn't sleep. I could have come over and we could have talked...," but she faltered as Zane shook his head.

"I don't think that your dad would like that very much, and besides when I get like this I'm better off on my own."

Zoe said nothing for a moment she just looked over at Jo lying in the infirmary bed. She weighed her words carefully for a moment before she said on a soft sigh, "I thought that you were being distant because my dad had arrested you, but that's not it, is it? Its because you have feelings for Jo, don't you."

Zane opened his mouth to deny, but the words wouldn't come out.

Zoe sank into the empty chair next to Zane with a quiet slump. "You can admit it you know. I've been wondering for a while now if there was someone else."

Zane quickly glanced up at Zoe in surprise and she gave him a small pitying look. "Please, I am the daughter of a cop." But then she shrugged, bringing him to mind of a very young girl again. "I mean, I was definitely sending out all of the signs that I was interested, but you never really pursued me," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry Zoe. I know that you wanted more, but I just didn't know how to tell you that I...," and he faltered again.

"Liked someone else," she finished for him.

Suddenly feeling guilty Zane angled his body towards her, "Zoe, you are one of the few people that I consider my friend."

"But only friends," Zoe said, pressing for clarification.

Zane nodded wordlessly and turned back to stare at Jo.

Following his gaze, Zoe sighed again quietly. In all of the time that she'd been dreaming about Zane Donovan he had never once looked at her like that. "You really do like her, don't you."

Zane didn't answer so she nudged him, "Oh come on, you're not going to pull that macho crap on me are you." She nudged him in the shoulder again until he looked at her.

"Whatever it is that I think, she doesn't think of _me_ that way," he emphasized. "Besides she won't be able to get past what I've seen because of this artifact."

"What have you seen," Zoe asked, her voice curious.

Zane paused for a moment and tried to find the words. "Nothing specifically. Its just, Jo is a very private person. She won't like that I've been crawling around in her memories. She was on a date in the last memory that I saw."

Zoe nodded. "I kind of figured," and gestured towards Jo, "That's not typical 'Jo' wear."

On a long sigh, Zoe put her hand on her chin and stared over at Jo's silent form. "Boy we are a pathetic pair," she said.

Zane just scoffed and wordlessly nodded.

"She'd be lucky to have you, you know," Zoe told him.

Zane sighed as he ran his fingers through his already untidy hair, "I'm starting to think that I would be the lucky one," he admitted.

Zoe turned around and reached over to the towards the bedside table where she had dropped her bags and lifted two to-go coffee cups. "Vinspresso?" she asked as she offered one to Zane.

Wordlessly he accepted and they sat silently together watching over their friend.

* * *

Carter and company raced through the near empty halls of GD, Fargo pausing briefly to reassure the guards that had stepped out anticipating a problem that they were simply late for a meeting.

As they entered the Rotunda Carter spotted Henry and Grace entering through the opposite side. Spotting each other at the same time they nodded and quickly joined together as they continued moving at a brisk pace towards the infirmary hallway.

As he reached them he asked, "Have you been able to reach Zane?"

Henry shook his head and motioned to Grace who was still on the phone, "No, and I don't understand it."

"No word from Zoe either. Allison is going to meet us at the infirmary," Carter said as they jogged down the steps.

"Does she know where her people are," Fargo asked, annoyance growing in his voice.

"No more than we do Fargo," Carter said as they turned the corner.

"When I find out who is responsible heads are going to roll," Fargo muttered.

"Easy there chief," Claudia said as she tried to keep pace.

"I'm sorry," Fargo began, "it's just that this sort of thing-

"Seems to happen a lot," Pete finished for him.

Claudia gave Pete a look, to which he shrugged his shoulder asking, "What?"

"We'll figure this out Fargo," Henry said attempting to defuse the tension.

"Jack," Grace said, "I'm so sorry. We just thought that it might help if Zane could see...," but she faltered at the end of her thought.

"Its ok Grace," Carter said as they rounded the infirmary hallway, "there was no way to know that this would happen."

"Yes, but now that we know," Henry said, "we need to deactivate it -now!"

Carter nodded, "So let's take care of that."

Entering the infirmary hallway their steps quickened and they burst through the doors, quickly filling the room.

As Carter spotted Zoe and Zane sitting next to Jo's bedside he let out the breath that he'd been holding. At the sudden entrance of so many people had they both glanced up, Zane immediately getting to his feet when he saw the worried looks on each of their faces.

"What happened," he asked as Carter reached Jo's bedside and helplessly looked her over.

"Why is your phone off," Carter shot back, fear and anger coloring his voice.

"We've been trying to reach you both for the last half hour or so," Grace told Zane as she and Henry stood by the infirmary console as they assessed Jo's status on the monitor's.

Claudia joined them as Pete was talking into his Farnsworth device, "Don't turn on the view screen," she said urgently.

"Is it safe to deactivate it," Henry asked worriedly.

"Will someone tell me what's going on," Zane asked as he looked around the room.

Carter glanced back up at him, but whatever he was going to snap out died as Zoe pulled out her phone. "Dad, I never got a phone call." She turned to Zane, "Your phone hasn't rung since I got here." She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "It went straight to voicemail when I tried you earlier, is it on?"

Zane nodded and pulled it out of his pocket and showed the display, "I don't have any missed calls," he said reading the display.

Carter reached for it as Fargo joined them. "We've been calling the both of you over and over. Could it be some sort of ...I don't know, cell phone glitch?"

"Can you hear me now," Claudia muttered.

Fargo shot her a confused glance and then turned back to Carter. "No, that's not possible. Our cell phone system is one of the most sophisticated in the world. It doesn't do glitches."

Fargo gave Zane back his phone. "Where is everyone," he asked, gesturing to the empty room.

Zane looked around as if he just realized that there should have been more people there.

Zoe answered for him, "When I got here there wasn't anyone here, just Zane."

Grace looked up from the computer and moved to join them. "When I left last night there was a technician here. He went to grab a cup of coffee maybe 5 or 6 minutes before Zane arrived." She turned to Zane asking him, "Didn't he come back?"

Zane shook his head slowly as he rubbed his forehead. "I don't remember seeing anyone last night the few times that I stopped using the device," he glanced at Zoe, "but using that thing it was total immersion, I didn't hear Zoe arrive until she turned the machine off."

"How long has it been off," Claudia asked,

"Forget that, how long was it on," said Fargo as he joined her at the monitors.

"Ok, seriously," Zane said his voice getting louder.

"Short version," Carter said, less angry than he'd been a few minutes ago, "we got more information on the artifact and its bad. Its trying to display the important parts of Jo's life to whatever audience it can get."

"And we unknowingly gave it a virtual playground," Henry said helping to finish Carter's thought.

"And that's somehow bad," Zoe asked, her brows wrinkling with confusion.

"Whatever she goes through in her memory," Claudia interrupted, "Jo goes through again; mentally and physically."

Zane seemed to lose some of his color. "So you mean," he began in a strangled voice, "if she was injured and relived the memory she'd actually have the injury again?"

Pete joined them with Artie on the Farnsworth, "What was the last memory that you saw," Artie asked through the small screen.

All eyes turned to Zane and he squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny. He dragged a hand through his rumpled hair and shoved both of his hands in his pockets. "I don't know exactly _when _it was," he emphasized hoping that Carter would get the hint, "but she was on a date. I think it was right before I came to Eureka."

Carter, Henry and Fargo shared a quick glance with one another before Carter spoke slowly, "So it most likely have been about three years ago."

"We need to know if she's had any other any life-threatening injuries between then and this open heart surgery that she had recently," Pete asked.

Fargo looked up, confusion on his face, "But if we don't turn on Grace's device then won't the artifact remain dormant?"

Artie's voice rang through the room, "Listen up people, we are dealing with a very unstable artifact here. We don't know what exactly will happen. This thing could find a way to short out the computer and display Jo to us in reality again, or it could find another way to wreak havoc. It's what these artifacts do unless we neutralize them."

"So, uh -can't we do that," Carter asked, "just neutralize the artifact?"

Pete sighed, "It's not that simple. First we need to separate it from Jo, then we can neutralize it."

"It may be even more complicated than that," Artie said looking through his notes again. "We don't have a whole heck of alot of data on this thing, but I'm concerned about her mental state."

Zane stepped closer to Pete so that he could see the screen where Artie was displayed. "What do you mean her mental state?"

"She is most likely not aware that these memories aren't real and if she's reliving some particularly powerful memories then she will most likely resist the separation. Memories have a powerful hold on us. Imagine seeing relatives again that you thought you had lost, fun memories from your childhood, reliving the first moments of falling in love again."

Pete didn't miss the look that Carter shared with Zane this time. "What?"

Carter cleared his throat and looked down at Jo. "There was someone that Jo was serious about a few years ago. It uh, didn't work out but she was really...it may be just like Artie said," Carter finished rubbing his hand over his face. "What happens if she doesn't want to give up the artifact?"

Before Pete could answer they were interrupted as the infirmary doors opened and Allison strode quickly into the room. A quick glance at the empty consoles where several members of her staff should be had her already worried face deepen into a frown.

Fargo opened his mouth to gesture at the empty desks but Allison cut him off with a quick movement of her hand and strode towards Jo. "First things first Fargo, what's Jo's status," she asked as Claudia handed her a pair of purple gloves.

"We think that Jo's progressed through her memories and she's currently in the past three years ago," Henry supplied.

"The imager has been off for more than a half an hour now, and her vitals appear to be strong for the moment," Grace supplied.

Allison gently opened one of Jo's eyes. "Her pupils are barely dilated," she said aloud. She went to step back but then a dark spot on the bed caught her attention. She gently lifted Jo's arm out of the way and there was a small dark red stain on the bed clothes. "She's bleeding," she said alarmed as she quickly rolled up Jo's sleeve, but only a small puckered scar was visible, "or she was...recently."

The others moved in to get a closer look, but seeing the location of the wound, Carter just turned to look at Zane. "Was she reliving Afghanistan," he asked softly.

Zane managed a small nod as he stared at the now visible stain.

Allison let out a deep sigh and looked up at the room. "We got lucky," she said. "It looks like it was a superficial wound, probably required a few stitches and that's it."

"She gave herself a field dressing," Zane said quietly, and everyone turned to look at him, "told her CO that it was just a scratch and then ran back out to fight. She was almost killed by a rocket, but her CO saved her and died in the process."

Carter nodded. "She doesn't talk about it much. I spotted the bullet wound but she got closed off when I asked about it. It was how she was awarded the purple heart." He shared a look with Zane. "Was it as bad as I think it was?"

Zane nodded. "Worse."

Carter accepted the answer with a thoughtful look on his face and one by one they turned their attention back to Jo.

"Excuse me, Doctor," Artie called out from the screen, "We need access to Miss Lupo's records, and any other psychological evaluations that you have on her. We need to assess how she's "

As Allison and Pete spoke with Artie, Fargo and Claudia were deep in conversation with one another about how to neutralize the artifact. Zane returned to his seat next to Jo his gaze locked onto the floor in front of his feet. Carter glanced at him briefly and then noticed Zoe standing off to the side awkwardly and he moved towards her. He put his arm around her and steered her slowly towards an emptier part of the room asking softly, "Are you ok?"

Zoe tried to give him a half smile but failed as she glanced back at Zane. "It wasn't the worst not quite a break-up that I've had, but..."

Carter risked a quick glance back over at Zane before answering. "You and Zane broke up? Just now?"

Zoe spared him a wry glance. "Honestly dad, could you at least try to fake some sympathy?" But then she sighed and leaned against an empty bed near where they stood. "You can't really break up with someone that you weren't really dating in the first place," she said quietly. "I wanted to talk to Zane to be sure, but I thought for a while now that he might be interested in someone else," and she shrugged.

Carter said nothing, merely looked back towards Zane and Jo. As he turned back Zoe was eyeing him speculatively.

"You knew," she said quietly.

Carter tried to cross his arms, but quickly changed the stance trying to look as innocent as possible. "I'm a cop," he said lamely. "I have hunches about things."

Zoe turned her head to look back at Jo and Zane. He had moved marginally closer to the bed and with no one looking had resumed his silent assessment of Jo. Zoe shook her head and looked back at her dad. "I just didn't see it," she said quietly.

"Maybe you didn't want to see it," he said gently. "Love can make people blind to what's right in front of them."

Zoe shook her head and looked back at her dad. "There's something else that I don't get. You said that there was someone that Jo was serious with three years ago but she hasn't dated anyone seriously in years. I would know if she had."

Carter flinched at Zoe's words and seeing his discomfort she pushed. "Why would you know something that I don't? Jo and I tell each other just about everything. Why wouldn't I know about something like that?"

Carter looked blindly around the room searching for an excuse or a way to change the subject, but Zoe knew her father too well.

"What aren't you telling me," she asked quietly. When he didn't respond right away she pressed, nerves making her voice quaver. "Dad, this is Jo we're talking about. I need to know," she said softly.

Carter gave a big sigh, frowned resignedly, and hugged her to his side. Just softly enough for her ears he said, "There is something going on, but I can't tell you about it." When she started to pull away to protest he held her closer, "I can't tell you, not now." He gave a quick glance at Jo, Alison, Fargo and Henry and made up his mind. "When Jo is out of Danger and we can talk again I'll tell you everything, ok?

Zoe looked at him skeptically. "You promise?"

Carter nodded solemnly, "I promise."

Zoe nodded in agreement and they remained quiet, watching the room from a distance.

Allison and Fargo were having a heated discussion and Allison waved Carter to join them. As he moved closer he could hear the words "Mansfield" and he grimaced. "Don't tell me," he said with a sigh.

Allison turned to include him in the conversation. "Yes, General Mansfield is still coming for the demonstration of the Law Enforcement Expansion Unit this morning, and Dr. Parrish is still working on some last minute tweaks to the system. I need to get back up there."

"Can't we just tell him that there's a situation and cancel," Carter asked his voice strained.

Fargo shook his head and glanced back at Claudia and Pete. "No, General Mansfield and his team aren't residents of Eureka and he doesn't fall under the same classification that the rest of us do. He and his team get read into all of the projects on site but right now the Secret Service isn't clearing him for this." He lowered his voice, "Apparently there's a real concern that the military might want to try to take over and weaponize some of these artifacts," he said quietly.

"So for now," Allison finished "we can't tell him what's going on."

"So what do we need to do," Henry asked as he joined them.

"We need it to appear as close to business as usual," Allison said with Fargo nodding along side her, "Keep everything as calm and collected as we can."

"Right because we do calm so well around here," Carter said sarcastically, then sighed at the look on Allison's face. "Ok, calm, right. So what first."

"I'll go back upstairs and help Dr. Parrish get ready for the demonstration," Allison said, "we'll try to keep him unaware of what's happening. Jo's second in command will step in for her and we'll say that Jo's indisposed."

Fargo nodded. "I'll join you when he arrives, but Claudia and I had a thought about the artifact. We're going to head down to the chemical processing lab. They have the recipe for an upgraded version of the neutralizer that they use on artifacts. We have a theory that they might need a little more than they brought, as a last resort anyways."

Grace called out from her seat next to the infirmary's computer console, "I'll stay here with Agent Lattimer and Jo and continue to monitor the imager. If we see any changes we'll let everyone know."

Allison turned back to Carter, "Jack, I need you to see if you can find out what happened to my staff. They're not answering their phones and it's not like them to just disappear like that."

Henry piped up, "Speaking of that, I'm going to take a look at the the server system for the phones. We shouldn't be having these kinds of problems."

"I'll give you a hand," Zane chimed in unexpectedly. When everyone looked at him he shrugged. "I'm not doing anyone any good sitting here and I'd...I'd like to help."

Carter nodded and sent a small grin in Zane's direction. "Ok. We'll look to regroup back here when we have some answers, alright?"

Everyone gave a nod and started towards the doors. Zoe called out to Allison before she could leave. "Would you mind if I went with you for this demonstration," she asked shyly. She gave a glance over her shoulder as Henry and Zane left the infirmary. "I could really use a distraction right about now."

With a knowing smile, Allison put an arm around Zoe and led her from the room.

As the room emptied Grace moved to the now empty chair next to Jo and leaned in close to her. "Hang on Jo," she whispered. "We're going to get you back."

_Phew! A conversation with Zoe has been impossible to write to find the right balance. I hope it came across ok. I finally got the bug back to start writing. Hopefully Chapter 17 won't be far behind. Thanks for all the great reviews. I appreciate it. _


	17. Chapter 17

You don't know Jo

Chapter 17

by Pchefbeth

Carter walked down the hallway towards the infirmary a puzzled scowl arranged across his features. With the phones acting up he had spent the last few hours going from house to house in town looking for Allison's missing staff. Most were single but the few that had spouses were surprised that they hadn't arrived to work. He had traced one or two as far as Cafe Diem where Vincent remembered giving them breakfast or a to go order, but then nothing further. It was like they had vanished before reaching GD.

As he walked the hallways the back of his neck tingled and he rubbed rubbed at it. Something wasn't adding up but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He was too wrapped up with worry about what was going on back at GD with Jo and unable still to reach anyone through the phones. With a quick sigh he turned down the hallway that led to the infirmary, wanting to get an update on what was happening. Never before had he missed having his PDA as much as he did now.

He stepped through the infirmary doors, his mind still half processing what was bothering him about all of the missing scientists, but those thoughts flew out the window when he spotted Jo, still lying unconscious in the infirmary bed. He stopped next to the bed, struck at how odd it was to see her so still. When she had the open heart surgery because of the bullet that had appeared in her chest he'd come in to see her in recovery, but he'd been so busy trying to stop the random wormholes. When he'd made time to get back she'd been awake and even from the bed trying to work. Seeing her so still for this long was simply unnerving. For the umpteenth time he wondered how the artifact had gotten into her hands. The tingling sensation reappeared on the back of his neck and he rubbed at it again and glanced up to find Grace watching him. She tried to smile and failed, the worry on her face still very evident.

"No change," he asked.

Grace shrugged and gestured to Jo, "No change in either direction, which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing. She hasn't morphed again to another memory, but we have no way of knowing what's going on with her right now. Agent Lattimer and his boss, that Agent Neilson are really concerned at what she might be facing in there right now, and we're helpless to know," she said as she threw her hands out in a helpless gesture.

Carter moved around to the other side of the bed and laid a comforting hand on Grace's shoulder, "It's going to be ok, She's tough, and if anyone can handle this..." but he trailed off as Grace shook her head.

"No, she may not be. Jo is in a really vulnerable place right now. I know that everyone thinks that she is this really tough soldier that can handle everything, but the memories that she's been living through, just the ones that we saw, they were all chosen by this- this thing to show us a part of Jo that many of us didn't know was there. In the past 24 hours she's had to relive her mother passing away, the anxiety of adolescence, and now we know that she's been going through the physical trauma of injuries as well as the emotional." Grace crossed her arms over her chest. "I designed this device," she said gesturing to the silver node behind Jo's ear, "for soldiers that had to deal with the trauma from PTSD coming back from a battle zone. What she's dealing with right now, reliving all of it, and on her own, unaware that we're here or that its not real." She tapered off and finished quietly, "Jack that would do anyone in. Jo's been reacting to everything that's happened since you all got back and found your world was different. She was already on emotionally boggy ground. I'm just worried that this may break her."

Carter stared down at Jo and nodded. "We just need to concentrate on getting her out safe and sound. We'll handle the rest when we have her back." He glanced up, noting the mostly empty room. Pete was off in a corner talking on his farnsworth but no one else was in. "Have we heard anything from the others?"

Grace shook her head. "Still no word on the phones. We can dial but they just ring or go to voicemail. No texts are getting through either. Henry is supposed to check in," she said as she craned her neck to look at a nearby clock, "in about a half hour. Allison was down here a little while ago checking on Jo." She scrunched her face up as though trying to remember. "Fargo went to Claudia to see, something about...goo, and they haven't been back. Any luck with finding any of Allison's staff?"

Carter shook his head, "It's weird. Its like they vanished. He scratched the back of his neck staring down at Jo, I just can't put my finger on it, but this all just feels..."

"Empty," Zane said as he walked over to them.

"Zane," Grace said in surprise, then looked around for her husband, "Where's Henry?"

Zane gestured back to the open door. "He's still in his lab running one last test. He sent me down to check in," then turning his attention back to Jo, asked, "How is she?

Grace shook her head slowly.

"What do you mean empty," Carter asked.

"I mean, this place is empty," Zane said. "I just came down the hallway and didn't see a single person. I know that whenever Mansfield comes into town everyone usually gets pretty quiet, but this place feels, I don't know empty."

"Maybe Parrish is drawing a crowd with his demonstration," Carter offered.

Behind them Pete hung up on his phone call with Artie and came over to join them.

"Anything," Grace asked.

Pete shook his head. "I told Artie about your idea," and he shook his head. "He's not really thrilled about it, but given the alternatives," he said trailing off with a meaningful look at Jo.

Carter and Zane were instantly alert, "What idea?"

Grace shook her head, "It's a long shot, but I wondered if we turned on the memory imager to display memories as well as receive them, then we might be able to get through to Jo's subconscious. We would be able to have a conversation with her. Best case scenario we could impress upon her what is really going on, and assess her mental condition."

"Worst case," Pete interjected, "the artifact speeds up or the other person brings Jo into a memory that can cause her harm and we can't stop it."

"So how would we do this," Carter asked.

The door to the infirmary opened and Fargo and Claudia rushed in, each holding purple IV bags. "Hold up, we may have an idea on how to weaken the artifact," Claudia told the group.

Fargo held up the bag to show to them. "Its a diffused version of the neutralizing solution," he told them as he handed one to Pete. "Since we can't get the artifact to the goo, we'll bring the goo to it," he said gesturing to Jo.

Pete nodded at the bag and handed one to Grace along with a pair of gloves. "Ok, let's hook it up to her and then fire up this imager of yours Doc."

As Grace worked Carter explained the plan to Fargo and Claudia. Fargo looked to each of them voicing the question that no one had yet, "So who is going to go in?"

Carter shrugged his shoulders and gestured to himself. "I think I should go. I've known Jo a long time and she'll trust me, which in this case is what we need."

Fargo looked as though he were going to argue, but held his tongue, and Zane merely put his hands in his pockets and stared down at the ground.

Grace gestured to a nearby infirmary bed and Carter sat down on it allowing Grace to place a silver node behind his ear, and then she gestured for him to lay back. Picking up a tablet she began the start up sequence, but nothing happened. With a quick glance at her screen she tried again, but still nothing.

"The system isn't responding," she said, her voice concerned.

Carter sat up and glanced at Jo. "She isn't...?"

"No," Grace said shaking her head in bewilderment, "there's been no change in Jo, but I hadn't counted on this." With a quick glance up at Zane, she returned her attention to the screen. "I can't establish a link because the neural system is only meant to support two people. The system is reading an already established link already...with Zane, and I can't shut it down."

The group turned to face Zane.

"When we gave you the connection earlier." Grace said quietly," it established a link, even though your neurotransmitter was only receiving images. You are the only one that would be able to communicate with Jo."

Zane shot a glance over at Jo and swallowed hard as his jaw worked furiously to contain his nerves.

Carter cleared his throat, "Fargo, why don't you and Claudia go and check with Pete for a minute, and Grace, check on the phones to see what's keeping Henry, would you?"

Needing no further excuse the group scattered to different corners while Carter stood and approached Zane.

Zane couldn't keep still, moving his hands from his pockets to crossing them in front of his chest as he shook his head. "I can't do it," he told Carter before he'd even spoken. "I can't. You said so yourself, Jo needs someone to trust right now, and she won't listen to me, and if I can't get her to listen to me...," he said trailing off and his jaw tightened again at the implication.

Carter placed a comforting hand on Zane's shoulder and spoke in a low voice. "Hey, listen to me. Jo is complicated, always has been. But you've managed to break through the barriers that she has put up," he told Zane confidently. "You did it once before, and I know that you can do it again. Take what you have seen so far and use it to help get her to trust you."

Zane stared down at Jo silently for a moment before nodding his agreement.

"Ok then," Carter said and gestured to the bed he had just relinquished.

Zane lay down and Grace approached with an additional silver node in her hand and placed it over the one already behind his ear. "By adding this neurotransmitter, you will now be able to see Jo's memories and project your own for Jo to see. It may be disorienting at first," she warned, "but you will need to pick a memory that you want to project and really concentrate on it."

Pete joined them with Artie on the farnsworth once again. "The artifact," Artie told them, "will be fighting for control, so you'll need to stay in control of your emotions. The artifact will sense you through the transmitter and may try to wrest control of your memories. Be ready for that," he finished.

Grace finished the device and it glowed blue around the edges. "One more thing," she told him. "Everything that you have seen so far has been as a third person, not actively participating in the memories. This," she said pointing to the device, "will have you appear in memories as yourself. When Henry and I used it, I was standing where he remembered me standing, but I heard the memory of what was said. Its a little strange at first, so if you want to break through to her you may find that you will have to talk over yourself."

"And whatever you do," Artie said once again, "don't think about any memories when she'd been injured."

"Right," Zane drawled sarcastically. "Piece of cake."

Grace picked up her tablet and looked over at Fargo and Claudia who were monitoring the IV of the diluted neutralizing agent, "Ready?"

They both glanced at each other and nodded, "Ready."

Grace glanced down at Zane once more and he nodded wordlessly and with a quick flick of her fingers, the device on Jo's neck glowed blue and Zane felt the now familiar pulling sensation as the world dissolved around him.

Carter and the others watched as Zane's eyes closed and the monitors above his bed began reading his vital signs. Grace watched impassively for a moment then let out a small sigh, "His BP's steady and his brain waves show an increased level of activity. So far its working".

Carter let out a breath in relief and then looked over at Grace. "Can we see what's happening," he asked her, but she shook her head.

"No, the device was designed to just share memories between two people. Once that connection has been made there is no way to add a third. I'm sorry Jack."

Carter nodded to himself, and said softly, "He'll do ok."

Pete closed his farnsworth and approached Carter. "I don't get it," he said. "He's a convicted felon, one who everyone agrees doesn't get along with Jo, and you just calmly sent him in to rescue her. Be honest, what kind of chance does he even have in there?"

Carter merely stared down at Jo and Zane and said nothing.

Upstairs in a lab, Henry was trying to complete his work on a set of computers that was tied to the phone system in Eureka. He was muttering under his breath as he worked, confused by what he saw in the code. "I don't understand it," he said again under his breath. "The system's active scanner should have seen this malfunction and automatically corrected it, or sent an alert to Security that someone was trying to tamper with the system."

He scrubbed his hands over his face, and stared back down at the board trying to see the connections in his mind. When he returned once again to the alert sequence he frowned. Everything that he had showed that an alert had been sent to Security and had more than 10 hours ago. "With Jo out that meant it should have gone to her second in command, and he..." Henry stared down at the board in disbelief. "No. That's not possible." He quickly turned to another machine and began to open a channel to the infirmary. It beeped but no one answered. "Come on," he said angrily, then turned the monitor on to record a message. "Jack," he began, "I've found something in the phone system. We have a serious problem here. The phone line appears to have been tampered with, internally. I think-" but then he stopped as he could hear footsteps approaching the lab. He turned away from the camera and stared in surprise at the person who walked in. "I thought that you were working on-" and then stopped short as he saw the barrel of the gun. He raised his hands in defense. "What's going on?"

_Next chapter. Our villain is revealed and we see Zane and Jo in the last set of memories. Hold on folks, we're coming to the end of this beast!_


End file.
